Christmas Jitters
by Moonlampje
Summary: Abby's attempt to get Gibbs to go buy a christmas tree with her fails miserably. Pairing: Gibbs/Abby Categories: hurt, comfort, drama, fluff TEMPORARILY ABANDONED! I will get back to it eventually, but not sure how long that is going to take.
1. Prologue

-Prologue-

"Hahaha, you wouldn't!"

Abigail Sciuto laughed and looked at Tony with a twinkle in her eyes.

She and her NCIS team member, or should I say: "Very Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo?" were out for a quick lunch before they had to get back to the navy yard and catch up with paperwork. Writing reports wasn't their favorite thing to do, but they'd do anything to avoid stares and slaps from their boss; Leroy Jethro Gibbs.

Taking a sip from his coffee DiNozzo replied: "Well, if I wouldn't I bet Gibbs would find out anyway..." He looked her in the eyes and continued: "You know the man hates christmas, why are you so determined to drag him along in your festivities? I sense no good is coming from this shenanigan."

"Don't call it a shenanigan, Tony! I know all too well what Gibbs' feelings towards christmas are, but don't you think that he just deserves to be happy again?" She sighed heavily and threw her empty Caf-Pow cup in the trash. "Can you get me another one, please?" she pleaded with the sad puppy eyes and slight pout that she knew would make everyone do everything for her. Besides, Tony owed her one because she took the rap for him when he had a date the other week that Gibbs wasn't supposed to know about.

Looking on his watch Tony said: "Okay, but a small one, we haven't got all day you know?"

Abby was eagerly awaiting his return, and when Tony sat himself down at the table again she smiled brightly with a ginormous mischievous grin on her face.

"Are you going to tell me what is so hilarious?" Tony asked, arching an eyebrow.

"Only if you promise not to tell Gibbs." She replied.

"Oh yeah, if this idea is just as brilliant as the one you told me about 15 minutes ago, then the answer is no." Tony was already thinking about what his boss would do to him and he was afraid that the skin might not grow back from all the headslaps that Gibbs would give him.

"Why are you such a party pooper, Tony? Okay, okay I get it: I'm not going to drag him along to buy a christmas tree with me..."

"You got that right! Listen Abs, you know how Gibbs is... he'll get over the fact that YOU ruined his christmas, because you're his favorite and he adores you. Instead he'll just take it out on me and make my life miserable for the next 5 months." He rubbed the back of his head when he thought about it.

Abby was silent for a moment. She knew she was Gibbs' favorite, but hearing Tony say he adored her sent shivers down her spine. Tony saw that, but didn't say anything to her. He stood up instead and motioned her to do the same because they REALLY had to get back to the Navy Yard before Gibbs would put out a BOLO on them, or worse: kill them himself.

"You can tell me on the way back what your plan is Abby, I'll listen but I won't make any promises about keeping my mouth shut."

They walked off teasingly bickering with eachother, not knowing they were watched from a distance...


	2. Chapter 1

"Ouch! Dammit!"

Leroy Jethro Gibbs woke up with a loud bang the other day and immediately returned back into reality when his head hit a shelf hanging above his bed. He really should remove that thing... He got up with a growl, put on his clothes and walked down the stairs towards the kitchen to make himself a cup of very much needed coffee, and read the newspaper.

His eyes scanned the front page for news about the latest NCIS case, while softly rubbing the sore spot where his head collided with the shelf. It was early december and they had just closed it, but it had been an extremely difficult and exhausting one. The case was high profile and covered in the news all over the world, due to the fact that a very high naval officer got busted selling drugs. Gibbs was looking forward to a couple of days off, he told his team to do the same and invited them over for dinner back at his place that night.

While sipping his hot coffee and reading his newspaper he heard a strange, unfamiliar sound coming from outside. Still tensed from the case they just wrapped up, he reached for his gun and slowly tiptoed to his front door... It was too early for his team to arrive, he barely even had his eyes open. Everyone knew that he needed his coffe before he would even be so much as approachable... Wait, what? Suddenly he realized what he heard. What idiot was under the impression that he would like to hear Wham's "Last Christmas" blasting out of a radio?

He yanked open the door, aimed his gun and yelled: "NCIS! Get down on the ground and put your hands behind your head!"

In front of him 2 people dropped to the ground, with their faces in the snow and their hands behind their head. Hmm, now that he took a closer look, the back of their heads looked somewhat familiar to him. The person on the left: about 6'1 tall, slender build, short blonde hair... yup, that's DiNozzo...

On the right: two jetblack pigtails, he felt his stomach turn and he didn't need to look any further.

"ABBY! What on earth are you doing here?!" he asked as he quickly kneeled beside her with a worried look on his face. She has always been his favorite labrat, that had never been a secret nor a surprise to anyone. Because eventhough they all did everything for the team: Abby always did just that little bit more. Over the years Gibbs had grown quite fond and protective of her, eventhough he would never flaunt it. That's why it took Abby by surprise the other day when DiNozzo mentioned that Gibbs adored her. It smashed her off her rocker.

"well, good morning to you too, boss." DiNozzo retorted, standing up and brushing the snow off of himself.

Gibbs gave him a side eyed Gibbs stare and DiNozzo decided that now probably wasn't the perfect time to be the smart-ass in the neighborhood.

"Well Gibbs, as you may have noticed it is freezing cold, snow is falling by the feet and it is december... you do the math." Abby growled as she stood up and used Gibbs' knee to push herself up in the process.

"It's time to get a haircut?" Gibbs joked as he followed Abby and DiNozzo back into his house. He found himself extremely funny and had to chuckle at his own joke.

Gibbs knew what was coming though. He and Abby had been working together for 10 years now and still she tried to drag him along every single december to go and buy a christmas tree and decorate his house. He hated christmas eversince Shannon and Kelly... He couldn't bear the thought of the two of them and he felt his stomach turn for the second time.

Well, it seemed like he couldn't dodge that bullet this time and he sighed heavily.

They walked back into Gibbs' house. He sat himself down at the kitchen table again and picked up his newspaper, trusting his agents knew how to help themselves to something to drink and a chair. DiNozzo looked at his boss and he made them some coffee. Abby declined politely so Tony poured a cup of hot brew for him and Gibbs. He kept looking at Gibbs who got annoyed and gave him a Gibbs stare over the edge of the paper..

"WHAT, DiNozzo?!" He snapped.

"Don't you think you should finally give in and go buy a christmas tree with Abby? She's been on your tail for 10 years now..." He spoke softly to his boss, so Abby, who was silently walking towards the stairs, couldn't hear him. DiNozzo saw her walking away from the corner of his eye, and he couldn't believe that she would actually follow through with her plan, the one that she told him about yesterday when they walked back to the Navy Yard after their lunch.. He was trying out of the goodness of his heart to get Gibbs go and buy a christmas tree with them. He knew it would make Abby the happiest girl on earth.

Gibbs drifted away in his own thoughts for a moment. Maybe DiNozzo was right, but he wasn't planning on telling him that. He knew it would make DiNozzo a tad arrogant and he smirked briefly because that is what attracted him so much in the young agent. He had a big mouth, but he would give his life for his team, because they had become family over the years. He also recognized a lot of himself in Tony from when he was younger and less tortured by life.

"Don't you think you should keep your nose out of other peoples business, Tony?" Gibbs asked with an agitated voice, hiding his amusement.

"Well, if you put it that way... But I still think that the two of you sh..."

 **SMACK!**

Tony had earned himself a Gibbs slap... AGAIN... He rubbed the sore spot softly while making funny faces behind his boss' back.

"Speaking of Abby, where is she?" Gibbs asked while he looked around for his favorite labrat.

"Well, since you're not willing to go buy a christmas tree with her this year" Tony clears his throat and mumbles under his breath: AGAIN! "you also might want to reconsider sleeping in your bedroom this month."

"Meaning WHAT, DiNozzo?" Gibbs demanded, his eyes narrowing at the sight of his senior field agent.

"Meaning that she is in your bedroom, putting up christmas decorations." Tony squeaked and ducked in case Gibbs was about to slap him again.

Meanwhile, Abby was carrying out her plan. Christmas was her favorite time of year and she just couldn't believe that Gibbs hated it. Sure, she knew about Shannon and Kelly, but all she wanted was for him to be happy again during those cold but cozy days. She loved him so much. So, she figured that she would secretly put all kinds of little christmas decorations up in his bedroom, now THAT would teach him. And a slightly devilish grin came across her usually angelic face...

Gibbs ran up his stairs and pushed the door to his bedroom open.

"What are you doing?" Gibbs' tone is soft and sharp, his eyes show anger.

Abby turned around happily, under the impression that Gibbs would appreciate her efforts. Wow! That backfired quickly when she saw the look on his face.

"Oh, hey Gibbs, what are you doing here?" she asked nervously, while trying to sneak out of Gibbs' reach.

Gibbs looked around his bedroom and saw all kinds of tiny christmas decorations, and it didn't improve his already crappy mood to say the least.

"Well, for your information: this happens to be my bedroom. And I -he points at himself- happen to like my bedroom just fine without those crappy decorations!" He started to collect as much decorations as he possibly could, dropped them in Abby's arms and pushed her out of his bedroom.


	3. Chapter 2

Abby was not pleased with Gibbs' behaviour and she couldn't understand why he reacted like this. Wasn't she his favorite labrat? Didn't he always buy her her daily dose of Caf Pow? Didn't he take her out to dinner on her birthday every single year since they had been working together? But most important of all: wasn't he her confidant in difficult times? Oh God, she can't even count the times when he got her out of trouble anymore. So why was he acting like this?

With a sad look on her face she started walking down the stairs, trying to put the christmas decorations back in the bag. She couldn't understand why Tony had told her that Gibbs adored her when he so clearly didn't.

Stepping down the last step of the stairs she yelled as softly as she could: "Tony, you need to help me!" She clung onto DiNozzo after carefully looking around if Gibbs wasn't standing behind her. But he was still in his bedroom, cleaning out all christmas decorations.

"With what, Abs?" Tony asked.

"I'll tell you, this man has a SERIOUS christmas problem, how are we EVER going to get him to buy a christmas tree with me?" She gasped for air.

"Oh, geez, well... I don't know. How about taking him by the hand and risk getting shot at close range?" sarcasm all over Tony's face.

"If you're going to be like this, I'm going to call Ducky. He'll know what to do instead of teasing me." She turned around semi offended and Tony grinned.

At that precise moment someone opened the front door and seconds later Ducky's head emerged from behind the door and he stepped into the house with a huge smile on his face. He was always in for a dinner at his friends house, because he loved to spend time with the team. Abby greeted Ducky with a loud shriek that he didn't expect, fell around his neck and he nearly suffered a heartattack.

"Dear God! Calm down, Abigail! Must you startle an old man like this?" Ducky sighed while he sat himself down on Gibbs' couch, wrapped his arm around Abby and placed a bottle of bourbon for Jethro on the floor next to his feet. He knew the agent would like that.

"Ducky! You HAVE to help me!" Abby demanded.

"Help you with what?" Abby stiffened when she heard Gibbs' soft and cranky voice from behind her. He came downstairs with a trashbag full of decorations. She sighed and shrugged her shoulders. All of a sudden she was so tired of everything. All she wanted was to make Gibbs happy and he just didn't appreciate the effort, or her...

"Never mind..." she answered with a tired voice. She stood up to get her coat and silently walked out the front door. Gibbs watched her as she slowly walked away.

Then he came to his senses.

"Abby... ABBY! Wait!" he yelled and he started running after her. He caught up with her by the time she was ready to get into the car.

"Where are you going?" he asked sheepisly, still slightly panting. He realized he had gone a step too far and that it wasn't fair to Abby. But he just couldn't help it, christmas brought back so many painful memories.

"What do you care?" she retorted, angrily pulling her car door open.

"Oh come on, Abs, can't we ta..."

But Abby didn't want to talk, Gibbs had hurt her so much, that she burst out in anger and started yelling at him.

"Don't you Abs me, Gibbs! For 10 years I have worked my butt off for you, I have worked overtime for you, I have put myself in danger for you, I grew to care for you eventhough you so don't deserve it. And the only thing I ask in return is that you go buy a christmas tree with me once a year and even that is too much trouble for you."

Gibbs stared at Abby in total disbelief, not noticing the glimpse of hurt and sadness flashing in her eyes. Instead he felt himself getting angry with Abby, a feeling he had never felt before. Why didn't she realize why he didn't want to go buy that damn christmas tree with her? And why didn't she realize that every tiny christmas decoration opened up old wounds? Wounds he didn't want to be reminded of because it hurt so freaking much. The day Shannon and Kelly were murdered, was the day that he vowed he wouldn't let anything, or anyone get to him as much as they got to him anymore. Now he stood here, painfully aware of the fact that he, you know, might accidentally have broken his own promise to himself. And it frustrated him even more, because he didn't want to hurt Abby.

"Oh, like I never did anything for you, right? I don't take you out for dinner on your birthday every year, I never bring you a caf-pow, oh and let's certainly not forget the times that I didn't get you out of trouble, am I right? You know what, Abigail? Why don't you just respect the fact that christmas isn't my favorite time of year and then we can all get over it and move on..." Gibbs closed his eyes for a moment. He couldn't believe they were standing there, arguing with eachother, for the first time in 10 years, he couldn't help but feel sad, lonely and lost.

"Fine! I'll go buy my own christmas tree. Geez, even the Grinch isn't as sour as you are." Abby said

as she got in the car and drove off, leaving Gibbs standing in the cold. Slowly turning around to go back inside, he didn't notice that a car pulled up behind Abby and started following her.


	4. Chapter 3

Driving off in distress, Abby hadn't noticed the car that started following her either. She was so consumed in her own thoughts and the fight that she just had with Gibbs. She knew she'd let herself get carried away and that it wasn't fair to him, maybe she shouldn't have pushed him so hard. After all she knew the damage that had been done to him when his wife Shannon and their daughter Kelly were murdered. He had never been quite the same anymore. Especially around the holidays. She could see how trying to get him go and buy a christmas tree with her, or sneaking into his bedroom and putting up tiny little christmas decorations would rub him the wrong way and she immediately felt regret.

She was also contemplating the thing that DiNozzo said to her the day before when they were out for lunch: "He adores you."

She couldn't help but feeling warm and fuzzy and wondering if what Tony said meant what she thought it meant. Lately there seemed to be a slight shift in Gibbs' behaviour towards her and she couldn't exactly pinpoint to what it was. Sometimes she caught him staring at her when he thought she wasn't paying attention, and lately she got a lot more "good job, Abs" kisses on her cheek. She found herself getting all tingly inside when he kissed her, And she started to wonder if she was falling in love with him...

When Gibbs returned inside, Ducky and Tony were eagerly awaiting him and they curiously looked at him as he sat himself down on a kitchen chair.

Not wanting to say anything, he pretended to read his newspaper, but on the inside his feelings were all over the place. He was so caught up in them that he hadn't noticed that Ducky came to sit next to him.

"Why are you giving Abigail such a hard time around christmas, Jethro?" Ducky whispered softly in his friendly tone of voice.

Gibbs looked up from his newspaper and met ducky's friendly glance. He sighed as he put aside the newspaper and his voice trembled when he started talking.

"I don't know Ducky. All I know is that christmas used to be all about Shannon and Kelly. About how we went out to buy a christmas tree, about how we decorated the house, about Shannon and Kelly baking cookies together, but most of all: about how incredibly much we loved eachother. It just hurts SO much since they're gone, and I know I'm not being fair to Abby but I just can't help it. The thought of having to go through christmas without them is too much to bear."

Ducky smiled.

"Are you sure that's all there is to it, jethro?" he asked.

Gibbs, not fully understanding where Ducky was going, but also not totally clueless said

"What are you talking about, Duck?" He asked, standing up from his chair to pour himself another cup of coffee.

"You have been rejecting Abigail for the past 10 years and we all know that christmas is her most favorite time of year. Something tells me that it is not entirely about Shannon and Kelly. Jethro, are you in love with Abby?" Ducky asked firmly, wanting to know if that was the reason for Gibbs' behaviour. He could imagine Jethro would feel like he betrayed Shannon and Kelly by falling in love with Abby and doing the things with her that used to make them so happy.

Wow! Gibbs wasn't ready for that bombshell to be dropped. His shoulders tensed and he turned around abruptly, spilling his coffee in the process.

"Dammit!" he growled as he threw his coffeemug back on the kitchen counter.

"I'm going for a walk..." He grabbed his coat and walked out of the door, slamming it shut on his way out. Leaving Ducky and Tony in total shock.

"It's not even noon yet and you've already scared him away, Ducky? This must be a national record." Tony snarked.

"Keep your wits to yourself, Anthony, the man is going through a rough patch at the moment." Ducky replied.

"Yeah, you can say that about the rough patch again, what was that all about?" he asked.

"This is about matters of the heart, Tony. Gibbs will tell us when he is ready for it."

DiNozzo was about to try to get more information out of Ducky, to no avail of course because Chief Medical Examiner Dr Donald "Ducky" Mallard wasn't going to reveal the suspicions that he had about Gibbs falling in love with Abby. They were still arguing when the door opened and Special Agents Caitlin "Kate" Todd and Timothy "Tim" McGee entered the house.

"Hey guys" McGee said and he sat himself down on the couch. "Where are Gibbs and Abby?" he looked around for his boss and their forensic scientist. He suddenly felt the tension between Ducky and DiNozzo and after glancing at kate he knew that she felt it too.

"Something going on?" Kate asked as she folded her arms and leaned against the doorpost.

Tony looked at Ducky, cleared his throat and said: "Gibbs and Abby had an arguement and they both walked off angry...". Suddenly he was unsure whether he should tell them about his suspicions. About how he thought that Gibbs was in love with Abby and how he knew that Ducky knew too. Hell, even Abby flinched yesterday when he tested the water by saying that

their boss adored her.

Ducky saw the wavering in Tony's eyes and said while standing up: "I guess we'll have to wait for them to come back. Maybe we can do some grocery shopping for dinner in the meantime?"

They all nodded and stood up to follow Ducky in his lead.


	5. Chapter 4

" _GIBBS GIBBS GIBBS! Have you been outside already? I smell snow..." Abby came running to Gibbs as he entered the bullpen._

" _Have you been watching that Gilmore Girls crap again, Abs?" he asked, trying to sound as cranky as he could. He couldn't help it but he nearly burst into laughter at her childlike enthusiasm._

" _Noooo," she tried to talk herself out of it with innocent, shimmering puppy eyes. "Well, actually I did," she admitted reluctantly. "But today I REALLY smell snow, Gibbs! Come on outside with me and I'll teach you how to smell snow..." She took Gibbs' hand and started dragging him outside. He surrendered and walked outside with Abby, he had a huge smile on his face..."_

Gibbs had been walking for hours on end. It was cold and snowing outside and he loved this weather, usually it made him help clear his mind. But that was not what it did today. Today it reminded him of that one time with Abby, when they were bickering about her obsession with Gilmore Girls: She claimed she could smell snow like Lorelai Gilmore. And he started smiling again when he remembered it.

Had he really been too hard on her? He knew he could be a handful, but Abby was one of the few people -if not the only one- who could handle him. He had always admired her for that.

The steady pace of his footsteps in the fresh snow helped him clear his mind. He had loved cold weather and fresh snow for as long as he could remember. His minded drifted down memory lane and he thought of that time when Kelly set her first footsteps in the snow. He had been SO proud of her and he felt tears stinging in the corner of his eyes. He could still feel her little cold hand in his warm fist, still hear her giggles everytime she tripped and fell on her cute little diaper butt and he remembered how he would scoop her up, throw her up in the air and catch her in his strong arms. By now the tears were streaming down his cheeks, his legs collapsed from under him and he couldn't find the air to breathe as his loss hit him so hard. For the very first time in all those years he could finally give in to all his pain and sadness and he cried and cried and cried, until he had no more tears to spill.

Meanwhile Abby was driving to the nearest gas station. It had to be just her luck that her car almost ran out of gas. With a deep sigh she got out of the car, filled up her tank and went into the gas station to pay for the gas. Now she could finally go buy her damn christmas tree. She didn't feel like buying a christmas tree anymore though... arguing with Gibbs had crushed her christmas spirit for this year, and maybe it was just better to head to her own appartment, feel crappy for a couple of days and return back to work.

Buried in her own thoughts, she hadn't noticed a figure following her inside the gas station and when someone behind her in an otherwise empty gas station screamed in terror, she turned around quicly to see what was going on. Instinctively she stepped back, her face contorted with fear.

She was looking at Mikel Mawher.


	6. Chapter 5

**A/N: Thank you so much for the positive reviews so far, this is much appreciated! Here's a new chapter for you to enjoy.**

"Hey sweetheart, how are you doing? it is so good to see you." Mikel started talking with that sleezy, slimy voice of his, softly caressing the rifle that he held in his hands.

Abby only had to take one look to know that it was a Beretta ARX 160. She had recently worked on a case that involved this rifle. She knew instantly that she would most likely not come out of this alive if she didn't stay calm.

Her hands started to sweat and her mind raced at top speed: Mikel wasn't stupid, but he wasn't the brightest bulb of the pack either. Her eyes flashed between Mikel and the gun, maybe she could outsmart him and try to reach Gi... abruptly she remembered their recent fight and she felt her stomach turn. Instead she would wait for what Mikel had to say, and then make a decision.

"Aren't you going to say something to me, Abs?" Mikel pleaded.

Abby flinched when he called her Abs, it was Gibbs' pet name for her when he wanted to draw her attention. She felt a sharp pain cutting through her heart, and tears stinging in the corner of her eyes.

She didn't answer.

"Awww Abby, don't be like this! Don't you remember what day it is today? Abby? Huh Abby?"

She had no clue so she shook her head, which was already too much of what he didn't deserve after what he put her through in McGee's house.

She crossed her arms and kept staring at him.

"you disappoint me Abs, it is our 5th anniversary today," he said with a creepy smile on his face. "Don't you want to celebrate with me?"

Abby's mind was still racing at top speed: when she thought of what Mikel had done to her in McGee's house, an idea started to form in her head. If she could reach her phone, she could speed dial his number... Yes! That is what she was going to do and she tried to reach for her phone in her pocket without him seeing it. Or at least: so she thought, her phone wasn't in her pocket... And he immediately noticed what she was doing.

"You're looking for this, Abs?" he grinned as he held up her phone.

"How did you get my phone, you bastard?!" she growled as she tried to reach for her phone.

"Nah-ah-ah" Mikel shushed her with a psycho grin on his face. "You didn't forget the gun, now did you, Abigail?" his face sly and cunning as he took a better aim at Abby.

"You disappoint me again, Abs... You, of all people, as a Forensic Scientist at NCIS should know better than to leave the doors of your car unlocked at a gas station? What would your beloved Gibbs think of you?"

Abby shivered at the sound of Gibbs' name and she wrapped her arms around herself . "Leave Gibbs out of this Mikel, he's none of your business. This is between you and me." Abby tried to sound confident, but she couldn't hide the fact that her voice was trembling as she mentioned Gibbs' name.

And it didn't go unnoticed.

"Aaahhwwww Abby baby, you're still moaning about that fight you had with him an hour or so ago?" Fake compassion in his voice. Abby opened her mouth to speak but was shushed once again, and Mikel moved in a little closer.

"I know, Abby." he whispered softly, his eyes staring coldly into hers. "I know because I have been following your every move eversince I got out of prison for that shenanigan at McGee's house. You didn't really think this was over, now did you? That beloved agent Gibbs of yours" he spat out Gibbs' name in disgust "is going to suffer for what he put me through in that prison! I know you're his favorite, and that's why I'm using you as bait... And we're letting the entire nation of America enjoy our show..."


	7. Chapter 6

**A/N: For those of you who want to see Blackadder: I think most of the episodes are on youtube.**

" _I've got a plan so cunning, you could put a tail on it and call it a weasel" Mikel had to laugh at his own wittiness. He had always been a great secret admirer of the British tv show Blackadder and actor Rowan Atkinson and was glad that he finally got a chance to use that quote. Even if it was only to himself. It didn't matter, he would get his 15 minutes of fame soon enough. And he would make everybody pay for what they had done to him..._

"NO!" Abby yelled in terror as Mikel lifted his shirt and showed a bomb strapped around his waist.

"Oh Abby girl, this is just the start of all the fun, I haven't been sitting still you know?"

No, he hadn't been sitting still indeed. He had been very busy from the day he was released from prison. The fact that Gibbs had sent him there when his only life mission was to be with Abby, didn't sit well with him at all and he wanted revenge. He came up with a plan so cunning, you could put a tail on it and call it a weasel.

He started following not only Abby's every single move, but the moves of the entire team. He didn't know if he needed it, but it might come in handy. And it did: he found out about the daily routine of every single one of the agents of Gibbs' team: where they shopped for groceries, what gas station they went to, which people they brought home... heck! He even knew when they visited the toilet.

He knew Abby's go to place for gas, which was perfect, because he wanted all to end with a loud bang. If he couldn't have her, no one could have her.

That's why he had to get the job of supplier for the gas station, so that he could check out the place and know what his options were...

"what have you been doing, Mikel?" Abby asked, her voice shaking with fear, which she didn't want to but she couldn't help herself.

"Well, first of all I had to get a job in this godforsaken place and I had to make sure that they trusted me enough to let me close the joint up at night. You see, I had lots of things to take care of: Put up camera's and have their feed connected to the ZNN network. I also had to make sure that I could take over the channel and start broadcasting this show when I needed to. I had to install bombs around the perimeter and hide some pretty knives here on this beautiful shelf..." He reached behind the sodas on the shelf and pulled out a large knife. He grabbed Abby by her arm and pulled her with her back against his body, she could feel the rifle pressing in her flesh.

As he wrapped his free arm around her neck, he pushed back her head with his hand so it would fall on his shoulder. With his other hand he brought the knife he held to her throat, and he whispered softly in her ear:

"Don't think for one minute you'll get out of this alive, Abby. Don't think I haven't noticed how close you and Gibbs have gotten. And don't you ever think that I like to do this, but if I can't have you, nobody can have you. Especially not that son of a bitch Gibbs!"

Abby felt completely numb and her brain was clouded with fear. How could one person become so vile, so evil, when she didn't even do anything to him to begin with? They had been together for how long? A year? A year and a half? And he never treated her badly. But one day she felt they were living more like brother and sister and she had broken off the relationship. Mikel had been devastated and begged her to please not leave him. But she just couldn't continue what they were having. At that precise moment, there in the gas station, she realised that's when her feelings for Gibbs had started to change... The way he cared about her, the way he sat next to her in the elevator and said: "Hmmm? I'll move your whole lab into the elevator if it'll make you feel better" and the way he kept her from hurting herself in his basement and he didn't even get angry for wrecking his boat.

"You're not going to live this down, Mikel" Abby started talking softly and slowly. Trying to stall time because she had absolutely no clue what his plans were.

"if we are going to get out of this alive... and I'm sure we will, because I can not imagine you would have us both killed, you will have to deal with Gibbs. And believe me: he is going to make you suffer. If there is one thing that you don't understand, Mikel, it's love. Gibbs loves me and is prepared to give his life for me".

That was one step too far. Mikel forced the tip of his knife into Abby's shoulder and slowly started dragging it down, making a wound from her shoulder to her elbow. Abby cried out in pain, not aware of the fact that Mikel had turned on the camera's with the live feed to the ZNN network...


	8. Chapter 7

It was a happy bunch that Gibbs saw returning from the grocery store. He'd always had a knack for knowing when his presence was wanted or needed, and it wasn't the first time that his arrival coincided with that of his team members. Not that he'd always comply... oh no, he had his own set of rules for that. Aside from the well known Gibbs rules that is.

He had hoped that his walk would calm him down and make him see things in perspective, but he had a nagging feeling down in his gut. And it told him something was going to happen and it also told him that what was about to happen would be really bad. He just couldn't put his finger on what it was.

"Hey boss, how was your walk?" McGee looked at his boss with genuine interest in his eyes.  
"Has any of you heard anything from Abby?" Ignoring McGee's question Gibbs entered his house and hung his coat over his chair.

"no, not me." Tony replied

"me neither." Kate chimed in

"no, why boss?" McGee asked.

"I have a gut feeling that something is wrong with her. It's just a nagging feeling. It'll probably go away soon. It doesn't necessarily mean something is wrong. So, what do we have for dinner?" Gibbs frantically tried to ignore the growing feeling of danger that came over him. He didn't want to ruin the evening, because they all had been working their butts off and they deserved it.

"Your gut is never wrong, Gibbs. Should I do something?" Kate was already reaching for her PDA.

"Nah, it'll be fine. I'm just a little distressed, that's it. Is Palmer still coming, Duck?" Gibbs turned to Ducky.

"Yes Jethro, he would be here around supper, he had to run some errands first." Ducky couldn't mask the worry in his voice and the fear in his eyes when he casted a glance at Gibbs.

Gibbs excused himself and said he needed to work on his boat for a while. They all looked at eachother with worry on their faces as he walked downstairs to his basement. They couldn't shake the feeling that Gibbs' gut was right and that Abby might be in danger.

"Okay. I know Gibbs said that Abby is probably just fine, but my gut feeling says that his gut feeling is right, and that Abby is in danger." Tony stepped in the role of leading field agent with ease. He was used to the drill. In fact, he was so good at it that Director Shepard had offered him his own team, but he had declined. He just didn't want to leave his team, it was as simple as that. Come on, who else was going to taunt and torture the rest of the team?

"Ducky, call Palmer and tell him to get his butt over here and let him bring the meat wagon." If Ducky was surprised at Tony's request, he didn't show it and he went to give Palmer a call.

"McGee, try..." Tony started out, but was interrupted by McGee who knew what he wanted.

"Try calling abby, if she doesn't answer, track down her cellphone with gps and put out a bolo. On it, boss!" McGee started working as fast as he could.

"Kate..." Tony turned to Kate, she was already heading for the tv.

"I'll turn on the news,, it should start in about 15 minutes and trace every emergency call made in the past 5 hours. What are you going to do, Tony?" Kate asked.

"I think I need to go talk to Gibbs, any tips on how to best approach him without him killing me?" Tony tried to lighten up the mood, but failed miserably.

"Good luck, Tony." Kate walked away to turn on the tv.

"Boss? You okay down here?" Tony walked down the stairs to Gibbs' basement, not knowing how to start the conversation he was about to have with him.

No answer.

"Boss, we really need to talk about that gut feeling of yours, because my gut feeling says that your gut feeling is right and abby is in danger." Tony sat himself down on a stool and looked up at Gibbs.

"What do you wanna hear from me Tony? Abby and I had a fight, she ran off and I went for a walk. That's it." Gibbs turned to sanding his boat again.

Clearing his throat, Tony said: "What was your argument about?" he asked and he slightly flinched at the thought of Gibbs giving him a headslap for his curiosity, but he just had to ask it. It was all for saving Abby, wasn't it?

"None of your damn business, DiNozzo. Now don't you have some preparing for dinner to do?" Gibbs didn't look up from his boat and continued sanding.

"Gibbs, you gotta work with me here for a bit, abby is missing..." Tony started.  
"She's not missing, Tony. We both walked off angry, she went to buy a christmas tree and I went for a walk. It's not even been 5 hours." He tried to give himself a peptalk, because the thought of something happening to abby crushed him.

"What is wrong with you, Gibbs? Normally you would have been all over the place, yelling orders and breath down our necks to work harder. Especially when it comes to Abby, you adore her!" Tony was flabbergasted, but he didn't give Gibbs a chance to speak.

"Oh well, never mind. I already ordered the team to start an investigation and they're all busy trying to track down Abby."

A wave of gratitude swept over Gibbs at Tony's determination to find Abby, and he felt tears stinging in the corner of his eyes again. It is not that he didn't want to look for Abby. But he was so sure that she didn't want to talk to him anymore, or even worse: see him anymore, after their fight. And he wanted to give her a chance to come to her senses before he started crying wolf about her whereabouts. He still had hope. He hoped that she bought her christmas tree and that she was decorating it in her appartment. But he knew very deep down inside, that something was awfully wrong. And it wouldn't take him long to find out what it was...


	9. Chapter 8

**A/N: Thank you so much for all the lovely reviews. They are SO much appreciated! It took me some time for this next chapter, so I hope you'll enjoy it.**

"GIBBS!"

A terrified scream came from upstairs. For a split second he looked Tony in the eyes and both jumped up and headed for the stairs.

Eventhough Gibbs was at a disadvantage because he had to come all the way from the back of the basement, he still managed to beat Tony to it and be the first one to be back in the living room.

"What?!" he demanded, his voice shaking with fear and panic building up in his chest. Then his gaze fell on the tv. What he saw was his worst nightmare. For a moment he couldn't breathe and he just stood there, gasping for air.

They all looked at Gibbs in terror. DiNozzo was the first to get his voice back. "What kind of sick and twisted shit is this?" he crossed his arms and turned to Gibbs.

Gibbs couldn't answer. His limbs were numb and he still wasn't able to move. The only thing he could think about was that the last words he and Abby exchanged were spoken in anger. This was not how it was meant to be and for the first time in his life he felt stupid that he didn't tell Abby how he felt about her. Now he might never get another chance. Slowly he sank into a chair, and ran his fingers through his silver hair, drifting away in his own thoughts.

"Gibbs, we need to do something..."

Kate's voice seemed to come from the other end of the world and he didn't answer.

"GIBBS!" Kate yelled in panic, trying to catch Gibbs' attention. They really needed to start acting, otherwise they would be too late. That was something none of them wanted to think about.

Gibbs seemed to be pulled out of his daze when he heard the panic in Kate's voice. He stood up from his chair and started pacing through the living room. It was one way to calm his nerves and wrap his mind around current events. His nerves did calm down alright, instead he felt anger rising in his chest and running through his veins.

"That bastard needs to pay for what he is doing to Abby." he whispered through clenched teeth. He felt so much anger that it consumed every fiber of his being.

"Boss, I tracked Abby's cellphone. She's in a gas station about 20 minutes from here." McGee stood up from behind his laptop, ready to gear up and go to the scene of the crime.

"No, you stay here McGee. I'm going in alone."

"But boss..." McGee protested. He was insulted that his boss wouldn't let him tag along to save Abby.

"What part of "no" don't you understand McGee?" Gibbs retorted as he geared up to go to the gas station.

"You can't go in there by yourself, that is suicide!" the rest of the team leaned in to hear the conversation. They were all eager to go and save Abby but Gibbs was adamant. It wasn't in his nature to expose his team to danger if he didn't have to.

"You're all staying here and wait for me to give you any updates." and that was the final thing Gibbs had to say about it.

"Well so much for plan A: knocking on the door and getting Abby out". DiNozzo tried to lighten the mood but immediately regretted his effort when he saw the look on Gibbs' face.

Gibbs walked towards Tony and said in a soft and sharp tone: "You listen to me DiNozzo. This is not a time for jokes. Did I make myself clear?"

"Yes boss." Tony replied and swallowed nervously.

"Now, we all have to be aware of the fact that this is a very dangerous situation. Mikel may not be the smartest creature walking around on two legs, but he isn't the dumbest either. Someone who can stage something so meticulous as this is someone who isn't afraid to die..."

"Excuse me for interrupting you Jethro" Ducky's voice came unexpected and made everyone jump up.

"Go ahead Ducky, but make it quick, we have work to do." Gibbs started walking towards the front door.

"Yes, well, not only is Mikel not afraid to die, he is also not afraid to eliminate anyone standing in his way. You put him in prison, Jethro and he is going to want revenge, hence the fact that he went after Abby. He had many years to plan this and will torture and eventually kill everyone you care for. Please be careful and please let at least one of us come with you for backup." Ducky ended his explanation with a deep sigh. He knew what was coming though, he had known Gibbs way too long and knew that he would go in alone no matter what they said. And that is exactly what happened.

"Oh, by the way DiNozzo, I'll take a raincheck on that headslap." Gibbs said and he shut the door behind him.


	10. Chapter 9

As Gibbs got behind the wheel of his car he took a minute to let his mind wander. "Oh god, Abs! How did we end up in this mess?" he contemplated, his gaze fixed on his hands as they clenched the wheel, fear and despair seeping through every fiber of his being. It was just now that he fully realized that not only had he broken his promise to himself to not let anyone or anything get as close to him as Shannon and Kelly once were, but it also hit him like a ton of bricks that he caught feelings for Abby over the past couple of months. Or was it years? He couldn't exactly pinpoint to the time when his feelings started to shift fom: "Hey, you're a decent coworker" to: "Hey, your jetblack pigtails get me all tingly inside." Of course he pushed those thoughts away, like he always did. He felt that he had nothing to offer to Abby, being as scarred as he was. He had seen so many marriages and relationships go down the drain and he never wanted her to go through that.

However, that did not diminish the fact he loved watching her from a distance as she was running around her lab, pigtails dancing up and down, her labcoat that fitted her gorgeous body so perfectly, dancing around her with every step she took, her happiness when she finally noticed his presence.

"Gibbs! How long have you been standing there?" she asked a little shyly the other week, and the corners of his mouth started twitching into that boyish half grin that made him so handsome.

"Oh I don't know, Abs, couple of minutes I guess?" his voice soft and tender as he handed her a

Caf Pow.

Now that he thought a bit deeper about it, he found it weird that she reacted so shyly to his presence. She had never been shy around him. Maybe she sensed that his feelings towards her were changing. Oh well, what did he know anyway, right?

He jumped up from a knock on the window, that got him out of his thoughts pretty abruptly.

"You okay boss?"

Tony's face peered through his passenger seat window while he rubbed his hands together because it was so cold outside, he opened the door before his boss could say anything and got in the car.

"Listen, Gibbs, I know you don't want backup but you're not going in there alone. We are not gonna sit around and wait, only to have you both killed in the end.

Gibbs sighed deeply as he started the car. He could've known his senior field agent would pull a stunt like this and for the first time he was actually pretty grateful, but he still sent a deathglare to Tony. DiNozzo was totally unimpressed with it though because he knew his boss needed him and Gibbs owed him a headslap anyway. Might as well take the hit all at once, right?

"What about the rest of the team, Tony?" Gibbs hit the gaspedal, knocking the wind out of Tony's lungs for a moment. It took a couple of minutes for him to regain his ability to speak.

"Ducky stayed at your house, Palmer took the meatwagon to the scene of the crime and will park it out of sight and Tim and Kate are following us."

"Why did Ducky stay at home?" Gibbs turned his head to Tony, ignoring a red traffic light. Tony, pressed back in his seat in a very uncomfortable manner,

"Aaaannndddd that would be ticket #338347327 for ignoring a red traffic light." Tony squeaked as Gibbs hit the gas pedal even harder.

"Yeah, and if you don't answer my question I'll have _you_ pay for the first 338347326, now talk to me, DiNozzo."

"Uhm, yeah uh, Ducky stayed at home because so many of us were already on our way and he wanted to take the time to make an extended profile on Mawher, he thought the best way to do it was to follow the ZNN news. And besides, he was adamant that Palmer is turning into a pretty decent M.E. himself."

Gibbs hands clenched the wheel even tighter when Mawher's name fell and he couldn't suppress a sound of anger coming from the back of his throat.

"Goddammit, DiNozzo! How did we get this far? How could this have happened?" Gibbs cried out in despair, not able to control his emotions in front of his senior field agent for the first time ever. And he didn't even mind, it was Abby and God no! Not Abby please, please let her come out of this alive. He couldn't bear the thought of losing someone again after Shannon and Kelly. Not someone he loved. Indulging in his silent prayer he felt a tear starting to crawl down his cheek, and he didn't even care that DiNozzo was there to see it.

"Don't worry, boss. We'll get her out of this alive." Tony tried to sound reassuring, but couldn't help sounding nervous and anxious. Abby was like the little sister he never had and losing her was just not an option. Like Gibbs, he wouldn't survive it if anything happened to her.

"Tony, I, I... I love her." Gibbs whispered and he sighed deeply. He hadn't wanted to say it, and especially not in front of Tony because he knew there'd be some sort of backlash coming.

"I know, boss, I know. We ALL know." Tony's voice was soft as he tried to gauge his boss' reaction, not sure if he overstepped any boundaries. But incredibly glad that Gibbs confided in him even if it was at such a horrible timing.

"I'm just glad that you finally admit it." Tony said, before picking up his phone that was ringing frantically.

"DiNozzo speaking."

"..."

Just as Tony tried to gauge Gibbs' reaction, Gibbs was trying to gauge DiNozzo's and his stomach churned as he saw the blood drain from his agents face.

"Yeah Ducky, we're almost there." came his reply as he hung up the phone and turned his face towards Gibbs in horror.

Gibbs felt his blood freeze and urged Tony to speak.

"WHAT DiNozzo?!"

"That bastard just slit open Abby's stomach area and she's losing a lot of blood. Not necessarily life threatening yet, but we still have to hurry.

Gibbs didn't need any encouragement and hit the gaspedal until he couldn't push it down any further. Tony was right, they were almost there and he wasn't about to lose another second over this.


	11. Chapter 10

Gibbs jerked the wheel around, forcibly hitting the brakes causing DiNozzo to almost get launched through the windscreen and managed to park the car behind Palmer and his meatwagon.

Tony let out a deep sigh of relief, glad that they had made it in one piece to the gas station. Before they even had a chance to get out of the car, Palmer was already opening Gibbs' door. No one had been able to update him in the spur of the moment. When he came over everyone was all over the place and Tony shouted at him to take the meatwagon to the gas station and park it out of sight, before walking out the door himself.

"Gibbs! What happened? I..." he started, but was taken aback by the look of anger on Gibbs' face, so he decided to wait for something, anything to come out of Gibbs' mouth.

But upon arriving at the scene of the crime Gibbs encountered something he never expected and never thought he'd see: the place was swamped with reporters who all caught wind of the news on the ZNN network, and were now trying to interview him. So answering Palmer was not the first priority on his list. He nodded to DiNozzo to update Jimmy, who immediately complied. And who was relieved to see that Gibbs seemed to have his emotions under control again. He didn't know if he could cope with his boss falling to pieces in front of him. Eventhough Tony was an excellent agent, he was sure that right now he couldn't do it on his own. Not with Abby in danger.

Abby had been lying on the floor unconscious for the past 5 minutes, so she never heard Gibbs arrive. She would've known if she were awake because she was the only person who was able to distinguish the screeching sound of Gibbs' car when he hit the brakes like that. She never told him that though, because she liked to keep that a little secret.

She had seen the arrival of the reporters, because she could look through the window from where she was lying. Mikel hadn't noticed yet and she tried to keep his attention focused on her, because she thought that he might indulge in their attention and harm her even more.

"Why did you do that to me, Mikel?" She whispered while looking at the cut he made in her arm with his knife, and then looking up at him with a puzzled look on her face. Abby had always believed that no person was bad deep down inside, and she couldn't believe that Mikel would do this to her. Not even after what he did to her in McGee's house.

She wondered where Gibbs was, sure he would have been here by now if he cared for her? See? Tony with his stupid remarks. Gibbs didn't adore her at all and a sharp stinging pain seared though her body, a pain even worse than the pain of the knife Mikel just used to slice her arm almost in half. How could she have stated so certainly to Mikel that Gibbs loved her? How could she have been so foolish?

A shiver started running down her spine and she sat down on the floor as she held her injured arm with her hand, as warm tears started running down her cheeks.

"Awww Abby, did I hurt you, Abs? Huh Abs? Well, maybe now you feel what I've been feeling all those years. Mikel's voice was soft and slimey and not sincere at all, and Abby finally realized that, yes, a person can indeed be really rotten deep down inside. In a strange way it gave her comfort and strength for the battle that was about to come. She realized that Mikel didn't care about her so much as he did about his own 15 minutes of fame.

And as strongly as she believed that Gibbs hated her gut, she was determined to not have Mikel notice that. In order to come out of this alive she had to put on a show. She was not going to let anyone bring her down, not Gibbs but certainly not Mikel.

Slumping against the shelves behind her to ease her physical pain, she started talking to Mikel.

"What have you been feeling Mikel?" she asked, hoping that he wouldn't notice the crowd gathering outside of the gas station.

He shrugged his shoulders. "Rejection." he simply stated. "The same feeling you had earlier today when you had that fight with your beloved Gibbs." The sarcastic tone of his voice didn't escape her attention.

Damn, he knew her well.

"Gibbs and I got in an argument, hardly anything fancy going on there, now is it?" she replied timidly, tiredness starting to show on her face.

"Oh yeah, Abby? Is that what it really is?" he insisted, lovingly trailing her calve with his knife.

Abby tried to pull her leg away from him, but that caused the next anger attack and he slit the knife across her lower leg.

Screaming in pain Abby sank on the floor and pulled herself in fetal position to ease the pain and at that momend Mikel caught glimpse of the reporters.

"You sneaky, little bitch!" he groaned. "You knew they were there all along, didn't you?"

Abby said nothing as she was trying to catch her breath.

Mikel put the tip of the knife just above her stomach. "You KNEW, didn't you BITCH?!"

Abby nodded silently and closed her eyes as the knife sank into her flesh and she slowly passed out.


	12. Chapter 11

Gibbs reached for his phone to call Vance as he was trying to get through the crowd. He understood that the reporters saw the news on the ZNN network, but WHY the HELL did they have to obstruct his investigation?

Angrily he started dialing Vance's number when he heard a soft voice behind him.

"What the hell is this, Jethro?" Gibbs turned around wile clapping his phone shut and he saw Fornell standing behing him, fuming with anger. He had to chuckle there for a second because Fornell didn't get upset very easily, It just goes to show that Abby was... no IS well loved by everyone who knew her. She was not dead yet and he wasn't intending on letting that happen either. The thought alone made his stomach churn.

"Mike Mawher got released a couple of months ago from prison and he is holding Abby hostage and he is torturing her." his usually warm gaze turned icecold, his voice strained.

A growl escaped Fornell and he clenched his fists. "That bastard is gonna pay."

"Hell Tobias! You think I didn't already think of that?" Gibbs snapped as the pressure got too heavy for him for a moment.

Fornell understood. He knew Gibbs was in love with Abby like everyone knew but what Gibbs himself tried so hard to either avoid or deny. "What's up with all the paparazzi's?" he asked, and he hoped that his diversion tactic worked. He was hoping that Gibbs would be able to get his mind on the job again by talking about it.

"This is all over ZNN news, Tobias. That asshole is torturing her on national television. Haven't you seen it yet?"

"No, I was working on an undercover case when Vance called me and urged me to come over here. He never explained what it was about, said there was no time to lose..." Fornell's voice trailed off as he tried to soak up the situation around him.

"Why is he doing this, Jethro?" Fornell ran his fingers through his hair as he purposely stepped extra hard on a reporter's toe, who turned around and started yelling at him.

Before it could get out of hand Gibbs intervened and pulled Fornell away. "Be careful Tobias, one of these days you might get bitchslapped if you keep walking out of line."

"We need to get these reporters out of the way, Jethro, who knows what might happen if that bastard makes a move?"

A plan started to form in Gibbs' mind.

"Nooo, Tobias. No, we're not gonna do that." he said as he slowly moved forward between the paparazzi.

"Why not? You wanna get rid of every reporter in America? Vance will probably kick your butt for it. By the way, why is Abby being tortured?" Fornell had been dying to find out, but had only just now gotten round to asking.

"He is taking revenge on me because I put him behind bars for a significant amount of his life. It just doesn't sit well with him, and Ducky said that he would most likely torture and kill everyone that is close to me." A deep sigh escaped him.

"And Abby is really close to you isn't she, Jethro?" Fornell stated softly.

Not ready to be as open with Fornell as he had been with DiNozzo he shrugged his shoulders. "Just a coworker, Tobias, just a coworker."

Fornell smiled to himself. He knew better and he knew that it was only a way for Gibbs to cope. He knew his friend long enough to know al the quirks of his mind.

"Yeah, you keep telling yourself that, Jethro. What's your plan?" he asked.

"Well, we're assuming that he at least has a knife, because that is what we saw him using on tv. We could also see that he was carrying a rifle, but he seemed more into using the knife. Not sure what he will do with the rifle eventually, but it is not likely that he will use it on Abby, as a knife proves to be far more useful for torturing. Then there should be at least 3 videocamera's, maybe more, and God only knows what more there is to the story.

Gibbs' phone started to ring and as he reached for it he caught a glimpse of Mikel.

"Goddammit Tobias! That bastard has a bomb strapped around his waist!" And he started working his way to the entrance of the gas station, determined to get him out of there before he could do any damage.

He took giant steps towards the door and yet he wasn't moving, what the...?

"Hold your horses, Jethro, you're not going in there." Fornell said in a stern tone of voice, while holding his jacket. When Gibbs was explaining the situation to him, he kinda started to understand what Gibbs' plan was. The plan was to find shelter between the reporters, it would be the perfect hiding place to observe Mikel without getting caught. Fornell also immediately realized that Gibbs' snipertraining kicked in as soon as he saw that bomb around Mawher's waist

"Let go of me, Tobias!" Gibbs yelled as he started struggling to get loose. Tobias, being shorter and more slender than his friend, struggled to hold him. So he tapped his neighbor on the shoulder and asked with his most charming smile "Good afternoon, sir, would you be so kind to help me hold this gentleman, while I slap some sense into him?"

Gibbs realized that Fornell was right and he calmed down, but the commotion didn't slip Mawher's attention, who now knew that Gibbs standing right outside the door.

"Abby, oh Aaaabbyyyy... wake up babygirl, your beloved Gibbs is here..." Mikel whispered in a sarcastic tone of voice in Abby's ear.

Abby, struggling to stay awake and not slide into unconsciousness, her breathing intermittent and unregular, heard Gibbs' name but she didn't immediately register it. It provoked another anger attack in Mikel, who wanted Abby to wake up, so he could torture Gibbs by running the knife through one of her limbs one last time.

Finally Abby opened her eyes again and she saw Gibbs standing there. "Gibbs..." She tried to yell his name, so he could come get her. But he didn't...

"You feel the rejection, Abby? Huh Abby? See that he doesn't care about you? I cared about you Abby, and you rejected me. You rejected me for that bastard and now you and him are gonna pay for it!" and he sliced the knife all the way down from her other shoulder, to her waist and down to her leg.

A gut wrenching scream went through the gas station before Abby sank in a coma.


	13. Chapter 12

"ABBYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Gibbs yelled in terror and despair as tears were streaming down his face and he was trying to get away from Fornell's grip.

When he noticed that Fornell wasn't letting go he collapsed down to the ground, sobbing and shaking uncontrollably.

Fornell coud do nothing else but sink to the ground along with Gibbs and he wrapped his arms around his friend, frantically trying to suppress his own flow of tears that was welling up in his eyes.

"That FUCKING bastard!" Fornell tried to catch his breath but found himself unable in the rage of anger that was running through his veins.

Suddenly he noticed movement in the back of the gas station. Minimal movement between the isles but he did see it. right? He wasn't losing his mind, right?

As he narrowed his eyes to get a better look he saw the movement waving at him. But wait! Huh? Oh God! That was Dinozzo in there, lying on his stomach between the isles but out of Mikel's sight. Fornell couldn't believe his eyes. Oh damn, forget about his eyes, he couldn't believe that DiNozzo was stoopid enough to get into the lion's den like that. What was he thinking? That Vance would throw a party of TWO of his agents got killed by that maniac? Shoot! Who was he kidding? It was that he was tied to the floor otherwise he would've gotten in there himself and that would likely cause Mikel to blow himself up. Yeah, Toby, that wasn't your brightest idea today, bubba. Then he saw DiNozze gesturing at him, motioning to get Gibbs' attention.

"Jethro..."

No response. Gibbs had calmed down, but found himself unable to say anything yet.

"Jethro, listen to me. Get yourself together, DiNozzo is in there and he needs you to look at him." Fornell urged as he turned Gibbs' face towards his own so he could look him in the eyes.

Gibbs squinted as he tried to process the news.

"DiNozzo's in there?" A wave of relief came over him closely followed by a wave of anger rising in his chest.

Fornell saw what was happening in Gibbs' mind. After all, he had had the same train of thoughts just seconds earlier.

"Calm down Jethro, he is out of Mawher's sight and he wants you to look at him."

Gibbs turned on his stomach and his eyes met Dinozzo's.

Tony started gesturing and at first Gibbs didn't understand, but then he realized that Tony was using sign language. Where the HELL did he learn that?

"What's he doing, Jethro?" Fornell's voice came from next to him.

"He's signing, I just can't see what he's trying to say yet." Gibbs replied as he crawled forward to get a better look.

"Signing? As in sign language? I thought only you and Abby did that?" Fornell exclaimed in surprise. He was aware of the fact that Gibbs and Abby used sign language, but that was because Abby's parents are deaf. He never knew DiNozzo could sign as well. Guess you learn something new every day about DiNUTSO, he thought as a grin spread on his face.

"He must have picked up from Abby" Gibbs stated simply as a warm, proud feeling rose from the pit of his stomach.

"Wait," Gibbs tried to distinguish the signs Tony was making. "At least 5 camera's, one rifle, 3 knives..." He fell silent as he tried to catch the rest of Tony's message. "DAMMIT!"

"What?!" Fornell asked anxiously.

"The place is swamped with bombs and Mikel's holding the detonator in his hand!" Gibbs growled. But Tony was signing so fast that Gibbs had to concentrate really hard in order to follow the conversation.

"She's breathing, call bomb squad, ambulance, blood bank center and order pizza. Taking him down".

Gibbs started to cry again, unable to contain his emotions as a wave of relief and gratitude swept over him and Fornell asked: "Are you going to tell me what he said or are you going to cry like a little girl for the rest of the day?" his tone irritated.

"She's alive, Tobias, she's alive!" Gibbs wiped his tears away as a huge smile broke through and he caught Fornell in a big hug.

Fornell couldn't help but cry. He had been so tensed since he arrived here that it now was his turn to lose control.

Gibbs started laughing through his tears and said: "Now who is crying like a little girl, Tobias?" and he gave him a playful headslap.

Fornell grinned. "What else did he say, Jethro?"

"He wants us to call the bomb squad, an ambulance, the blood bank center and he even wants us to order a pizza as he claims he's taking Mawher down." Gibbs turned serious again. "Can you do that Tobias? So I can stay here and keep an eye on DiNozzo? Palmer and the meatweagon are around the corner as should Kate and Tim be.

Fornell didn't need any further encouragement and he got up and walked away, confident that Gibbs wouldn't make any stupid mistakes anymore.


	14. Chapter 13

**A/N: Thank you guys SO SO much for all your positive reviews! You have no idea what that means to me! You rock! Abby is still alive but barely. Will she make it through?**

Tony was glad that he was able to get his message to his boss. He was even more glad that he had nagged Abby a couple of months ago to teach him sign language. Of course the reason he wanted to learn it was because he wanted to know what Gibbs and Abby were saying about him when they were signing in his presence. Never had he imagined that he would end up in a situation like this, and he realized that knowing sign language could save peoples lives.

After Gibbs motioned him to update Palmer, he really felt that he needed to do something. But he wasn't sure because the whole situation was so overwhelming. Usually he got right on track with every investigation, but his judgment was clouded now that it was one of their own that was in danger. He started pacing up and down the street, and not much later Tim and Kate arrived.

"Wow, is Gibbs ever going to learn to not ignore red traffic lights?" McGee said to no one in particular while wiping sweat off of his forehead. The follow up ride here had been quite nerve-racking to say the least.

"Good. glad I have you all here." Tony started out, nervously stepping from one foot to the other, unable to stand still.

"Fill us in, Tony." Kate said, trying to get her coworker to start talking. She understood that he was nervous and afraid, they all were, but they needed to get going.

"As for now, Gibbs is in front of the gas station, trying to get a view of Abby. He motioned me to update Palmer and that is basically it, haven't heard from him since. I do wonder why all those reporters are still here, knowing Gibbs and his ability to make everyone wet their pants just by staring at them, I'm surprised that they all haven't been running to mommy, crying for help yet." Tony took a deep breath and looked at the other 3, waiting for one of them, any of them, to chime in. He was out of options.

Kate started pacing, her mind racing at top speed trying to figure out what their boss was doing.

"I'm sure Gibbs has a plan with those reporters," she started thinking out loud. "I'm sure he would never, ever jeopardize anyone like this, if it wasn't truly necessary, would he?" she came to a halt next to DiNozzo.

"Unless there are any reporters out there that he has an axe to grind with, and I'm sure there are because Gibbs, right? Second b doesn't stand for bastard for nothing." Tony ran his hand over his face, trying to collect himself. "No, there's gotta be another reason..."

Then they heard Abby screaming.

They all looked at eachother in agony.

"Goddammit, I gotta get in there!" Tony started running towards the front entrance of the gas station, but McGee stopped him.

"No, Tony, you can't go in there through the front gate! All hell will break loose, are you out of your freaking mind?!" He could not believe Tony would do such a stupid thing in the first place.

"You have a better idea, McPartypooper?" Tony snarked.

"As a matter of fact, I have, yes! Not sure if you are aware of the fact that pretty much every gas station in America also has a toilet, but guess what Tony? That might be your way in." McGee retorted. He was used to Tony bullying him pretty much every single day, but now was not the time to shove that in his face.

Tony's face lit up and he said: "Wow! Well done, McWiseass, I owe you one." Relief came over his face as he knocked him on the shoulder. "Listen, I'm going in alone, there's no need to get us all killed. I probably won't get in touch as it is too dangerous, but be ready. Just be ready." He cracked his knuckles in an attempt to gather courage for what he was about to do.

"Good luck, Tony" Kate spoke softly as she grabbed his hand and squeezed it.

So that was how he ended up in this shenanigan. Once he entered the gas station through the toilets, that also had an entrance on the outside, he got rid of everything that would make noise. He took off his shoes, belt and jacket, leaving them there in the toilet. He hoped that once all of this was over he wouldn't forget his stuff, because he was pretty sure he would get himself in a pickle when his pants would fall off in front of the world to see.

He dropped himself on his stomach and started crawling into the store.

The first thing he saw were bombs, lots of them, and he felt his stomach sink to his feet. But, he had no time left and moved further while carefully looking around.

The next thing he saw from under the shelves was Abby. She was lying awfully still and for a second he was afraid that she'd be dead, but then he saw her chest moving up and down. Good, that meant he could continue.

He came to a halt next to a couple of warehouse shelves that separated one isle from the other, and he counted one, two, threee, four, fiiiive camera's. Yup.

Suddenly he heard movement and he held his breath, scared that Mikel had heard him. Footsteps came closer and closer and he felt his stomach cramp up, sweat started to form on his forehead and he couldn't swallow anymore.

But Mikel wasn't coming his way. He stopped in front of the door, gazing at Gibbs who was having his meltdown and he started laughing like a maniac.

"Yeah Gibbs, you cry like a little baby" he whispered, his tone psychotic. "Maybe you'll stop being so chicken shit and get that ugly face of yours in here. I have a big surprise for you!"

Tony could only imagine what that surprise would be, and he took the opportunity to scoot as close as possible to Mikel. "What the..." his gaze fell on Mikel's waist and he saw the bomb strapped around it. Great! Like this situation wasn't terrifying enough as it was already. And to top it all off there were 3 knives lying there as well. For a moment he was just paralyzed with fear. There was no way that anyone was going to get out of this alive.

Scanning the outside area from where he was lying he saw Fornell trying to calm down Gibbs. Trying to figure out how to get his attention without Mikel finding out, he saw Fornell narrowing his eyes looking in his direction. So he waved. And he saw Fornell putting the pieces of the puzzle together so he motioned him to get Gibbs' attention.

After updating Gibbs about the situation he was in, Gibbs signed: "You taking him down? You crazy?"

"Believe me, the crazy train passed me by a long time ago, compared to this whackjob here. You ready?" Tony's fingers signed so fast that Gibbs could hardly keep up, but he nodded anyway.

One of the advantages of working with Tony for as long as he had, was that they didn't need to say anything when the going got tough. He knew exactly what his senior field agent expected of him and he patiently waited for a sign.

He didn't have to wait long. Almost right after Tony asked if he was ready he saw him signing, "Boss, Get ready. In 5... Gibbs got up on one knee, feeling the tension building up in his chest. 4... 3... 2... NOW!"


	15. Chapter 14

At that moment a lot of things were happening all at once. As Gibbs got up and sprinted to the gas station, Tony managed to wrap his arms around Mikel's legs, jerking him off of his feet. Luckily he fell sideways, so at least the bomb strapped to his waist didn't go off. But, the shock of Tony grabbing him made him throw the detonator up in the air. It fell towards the floor with a very high speed and Tony looked at it as if it fell in slow motion. Gibbs who just ran into the gas station dove to the floor just in time to catch the detonator.

Getting up, he said to Tony, who had pulled up Mikel from the floor and handcuffed him, "Good job, kid!"

"OW! You're hurting me, stop hurting me!" Mikel whined.

Gibbs turned towards him and slowly grabbed him by his shirt, anger and disgust radiating from his eyes.

Then he heard a soft click and Tony's voice, sarcastically saying: "Oh, will you look at that... his belt just snapped loose." and he held the belt in the air for Gibbs to see.

Gibbs knew immediately that Tony had untied the belt and grinned viciously at Mikel before his fist hit his jaw, Mikel fell to the ground and Gibbs jumped on him.

"You sick, twisted bastard!" his fists rained down on Mikels face, each blow with more force and velocity. "You are gonna pay, asshole!" He was so caught up in his anger that he didn't notice that Mikel stopped moving.

"Boss?" Tony gently tapped Gibbs' shoulder. "I think you can stop now." but he wasn't about to stop. This piece of shit hurt Abby...

"Ah I see that my help isn't needed here." Fornell had returned and looked at Gibbs with a satisfied smile on his face.

"Don't you think we should stop him, Tobias?" Tony asked, with worry in his voice.

"Ah, nah... Let him have it, he deserves it and Jethro will feel so much better when he's finished with him.

Finally Gibbs had had enough and his gaze went to Tony. Heavily panting he pulled him in for a long, suffocating hug.

Fornell smiled fondly at the sight of his 2 friends and went to hold the door open for the bomb squad.

"Where is she, Tony?" Gibbs asked softly as he let go of DiNozzo.

Tony pointed at the isle behind them and Gibbs hurried over there, sinking next to her on the floor. He knew the paramedics had to wait until the bombs were dismantled, before they could come in.

He saw Tony carefully walking towards the restrooms, and Fornell was keeping watch over Mikel.

Finally he could take a closer look at Abby, and he held his breath. She was lying there, so fragile and she looked so pale.

"Oh God, Abs" he trembled, his voice choking, his tall and slender fingers caressing her hand before wrapping it up in his own.

"All clear!" Someone from the bomb squad walked towards Gibbs. "We worked as fast as possible Gibbs, that son of a bitch is mental! What the hell was he thinking?" The poor guy was tripping over his words, unable to contain his anger. The thought of losing an entire team, not to mention what would have happened to all those people outside and the area around the gas station, made him sick to his stomach.

"All he wanted was revenge, because I put him in prison for years on end for what he did to Abby in McGee's house." Gibbs sighed heavily as he stood up and motioned the paramedics to come over and take care of Abby.

As he ran his fingers through his hair Tony came back with Tim, Kate and Jimmy right behind him.

"She's still alive, isn't she?" McGee asked in despair as he looked at Abby, eventhough Tony had told him that she was. The sight of her lying on the floor like thad made his stomach churn.

"Barely, Tim" Gibbs replied softly as he stepped back to let the paramedics do their work. "What are kate and Jimmy doing? And where's Tobias?" He asked looking around.

"Jimmy is taking care of the customer and the cashier. They're probably traumatized for life. Kate is outside taking statements and from what I can see Fornell is having another go at Mawher." Tony anwered as he nodded in Fornell's direction.

Fornell was indeed having a ball with Mawher, as he started to regain consciousness, by putting his shoe on his throat and nearly choking him to death.

Gibbs smiled and knew he wouldn't have to worry with Tobias on the scene, but he still went over there. Mawher needed to know that he would not rest until he had his revenge.

So he stood over Mikel, his eyes showing contempt and he started to speak in a soft and threatening voice: "You better make sure that you have a damn good funeral insurance, because when this is all over you'll have hell to pay. And if you think that those few slaps I just gave you were the worst I could do to you then you're either terribly naive or terribly stupid." and he turned around to go back to Abby as Fornell picked up Mikel from the floor and took him to the police station.

"How's she doing?" he asked the first paramedic he could get a hold of.

"She's not doing too well, sir," he started talking. "She's lost a copious amount of blood and eventhough we still can't see any severe damage from the outside, we have to get her to the hospital as soon as possible to look for internal bleeding and injuries. She's taken quite a blow."

Gibbs had already figured that out for himself, but hearing it from someone else really got to him and he silently prayed for her to come out of this alive.

The paramedic in charge ordered his team to lift Abby on the stretcher after preparing her for the ride, motioning Gibbs to tag along and they rushed her to the ambulance.

Coming outside every single person started clapping and cheering. Gibbs didn't pay attention to them as his eyes were fixed on the monitor that showed Abby's heart activity.

She flatlined.


	16. Chapter 15

Gibbs knew instantly that it was bad news.

"What's going on?" he demanded, keeping his gaze on Abby.

"She's suffering a cardiac arrest sir, please step aside." came the answer of the paramedic as he jumped on the stretcher and started giving Abby CPR. In the mean time another paramedic hooked Abby up to the ambu bag, so she could at least get some air.

Gibbs felt his inside turn to ice as he kept staring at the flat green line on the monitor. He knew it was best that he was out of the way but everything inside him screamed that he needed to hold her.

In his mind he was back in her lab, not too long ago, when she was listening to an album of one of her favorite bands... what was the name again? It was something with a D... Dis.. Disrupted? Nah. Disturbed! That's what it was. The lyrics came back vividly though:

Save our last goodbye  
Embedded in my mind, your face will never leave me  
Save our last goodbye  
It's killing me that I won't get to hear your laughter anymore.

Feeling sick to his stomach he turned away and started vomiting, mentally killing himself for not letting Abby know how he felt about her. If she was gonna die, he had no reason to live anymore either.

Suddenly he heard something. "beep... beep... beep..."

The beeps were slow, but they were there nonetheless.  
"And we have a pulse! Now let's get her into the ambulance and bring her to Bethesda Naval Hospital A.S.A.P, You want to tag along sir?" The paramedic turned to Gibbs as he started to push the stretcher as fast as he could to the ambulance. Gibbs didn't answer, he just simply followed suit.

Tony, who had been beside him all this time, quickly said that he would gather everyone and bring them to the hospital. Gibbs thankfully nodded as he jumped into the ambulance.

The ride to the hospital couldn't have lasted more than 7 or 8 minutes, but to Gibbs it felt like he was sitting cramped up in his seat for ages. The drive just didn't seem to come to an end and he was about to start growling to hit the gas pedal, when they arrived at the hospital.

Ducky, who had been following everything on the ZNN news, had seen that they got Abby out alive and he immediately got into his car and drove to Bethesda. He didn't know how long it would take for the ambulance to get there, but he just wanted to be there for Gibbs. God only knew how much he would need a shoulder to cry on.

As he was sitting in the waiting room of the hospital, the doors swung open and Gibbs entered the room. They stared at eachother for minutes. Gibbs looked away first, desperately trying not to cry. Then Ducky stood up and gently put his arms around his friend, and Gibbs let his tears flow freely.

"Poor lad, you must be exhausted, come sit down." Ducky said as he urged Gibbs to take a seat, who gladly accepted.

"Where did they take her Jethro, and how is she doing?' Ducky asked.

"Her heart is beating, but that is basically it. She's in real bad shape and she suffered a cardiac arrest..." Ducky gasped for air when he listened to Gibbs' monotone voice, summing up the facts of what had happened in the wake of the kidnapping.

"How long did the cardiac arrest last, Jethro?"

"I don't know but it couldn't have been longer than 25 to 30 seconds." Gibbs ran his hands over his face when he remembered that awful sound of the flatline.

Ducky let a sigh of relief escape his mouth. "You do realize what that means, don't you, Jethro?" A tiny hint of a smile appearing on his face.

Gibbs, not able to realize anything at the moment, growled: "What, Duck?! I'm not seeing things as clear as you at the moment."

"When a heart attack or cardiac arrest is treated within proper time, there is usually no permanent brain damage. And you may understand now that that is a huge relief. Things would have been so much worse if Abigail had to fight for her life twice. Not only for the stab wounds, but also for the brain damage." He looked at Gibbs with fatherly concern. He loved this kid as if it was his own son, and he couldn't stand to see him so upset.

"Where did they take her, Jethro?"

"She's in surgery now. They need to clean and desinfect the wounds, and then I'm guessing they'll look for internal damage and eventually stitch her up..."

"NEXT TIME I'M DRIVING!"

"OH HELL YOU AREN'T!"

"And have my intestines shaken all over the place again? You can kiss my royal butt, Tony!"

"I can?" Tony retorted with an innocent voice.

"Oh, SHUT UP!"

The door was pushed open so hard that Gibbs was afraid for a second that it might turn into a revolving door.

In front of him were Tony and Kate, bickering like little kids. Gibbs stood up and came to a halt next to Tony.

"I know, Dinozzo, that I still have a few headslaps to look forward to, please don't make me give them to you now." he spoke softly before turning to Kate.

"And if you don't stop bickering, I'll give you a headslap too." he said and gave her his best Gibbs stare.

"Sorry, Boss" they said simultaneously

"McGee coming soon?" He asked.

"He should be here any minute now, he went to pick up Fornell first." Tony replied.

And speaking of the devil, that was the sign for McGee and Fornell to step into the waiting room.

Gibbs updated them all at once about Abby. He knew that the waiting game had begun, so he urged his team to get some coffee and a snack. None of them was really hungry though, so they all chose a chair and made themselves as comfortable as possible.

And they waited.


	17. Chapter 16

And they waited.

Everytime a doctor came by, Gibbs would jump up and ask how Abby was doing. The only thing he heard was: "She's still in surgery. We will let you know as soon as she's allowed to have a visitor". And everytime he sank back in his chair more sad and desperate than the time before. They had been waiting for hours already, he got sick and tired of waiting. And he got sick and tired of the loaded silence in the waiting room, when everyone was in their own thoughts. Usually he loved silence, as he wasn't much of a people person. The team could vouch for so much. But the silence he was sitting in now nearly choked him, and laid over him as a dark blanket of misery. He didn't want to be alone in his thoughts about Abby, in his fears of losing her.

"How long do you think this is gonna take, Ducky?" He asked his chief medical examiner with a hint of impatience in his voice.

"I have no clue whatsoever, Jethro. Depending on the severity of her wounds it can take up to 24 or 30 hours in surgery, minimum. On the other hand, they might be finished with her in no time from now. There really isn't any indication of time at this moment. We will just have to wait it out." Ducky sighed and turned around in his chair to find a more comfortable way to sit.

"Sorry to be a partypooper, kids, but I have to go home. It's getting late and I have a case to prepare before tomorrow." Fornell looked intently in Gibbs' direction, who immediately understood that he was going to build a case against Mawher. Gibbs nodded and stood up, following Fornell outside, so the rest of the team couldn't hear him.

"You're gonna leave the interrogation to me, aren't you Tobias?" he asked.

"And have the bastard torn into pieces within a matter of seconds?" Fornell raised an eyebrow. "Not a chance, Jethro. My team will do the investigation and interrogation. You're way too involved with Abby to be able to handle this in a sensitive manner. You cannot let your feelings towards Mawher cloud your judgement.

Gibbs snorted, angrily shrugging his shoulders, not noticing a glimpse of amusement flashing in his friend's eyes. Fornell knew Gibbs so well.

"Come on, Jethro. Mawher will at least receive a life sentence, if not the death penalty. What else do you want?"

"Revenge." came the simple answer.

"oh, you'll get your revenge, I'm sure you will." Fornell promised as he walked away.

When Gibbs returned into the waiting room, Tony laid spread out on the floor, trying to get some shut eye. The events of the day had drained him like they had drained every single one of them. McGee and Kate were softly talking to eachother, discussing what had happened and more importantly why it had happened. Ducky was reading some magazine just to kill time.

Gibbs sat himself down and rested his read against the wall behind him.

They sat and/or lied in silence for what seemed like forever.

"Did you know that Abby could recognize the screeching of your brakes, without even knowing it was you, boss?" Tony's voice came soft from where he was lying on the floor, yet everyone heard him.

Gibbs squinted as he felt his chest cramp up. Almost unable to speak he asked: "How d'you know that, Tony?". The idea of Abby knowing such a tiny little piece of information, made him feel like someone just thrusted a knife through his heart. Because if she knew that, that would mean that he meant something to her, right?

Ducky, McGee and kate were leaning in too, to hear what Tony was going to say. But Tony didn't answer.

"HOW do you know that, DiNozzo?" Gibbs demanded.

Tony sat up, wrapped his arms around his legs and let his chin rest on his knees.

"My eyes fell on her diary a few months ago and I couldn't help but read it..." his voice trembling, because he knew that this news wouldn't be received very well.

"YOU DID WHAT?!" 4 voices yelled at him.

Tony shrugged and said? "I was curious, what can I say? I'm a curious kinda guy." and at that moment he felt 4 hands slapping him on the back of the head.

"Excuse me, is Jethro Gibbs present?" a docter came walking in to the waiting room. Gibbs stood up to introduce himself. "I'm Jethro Gibbs, how is she?" He instantly asked.

"Good evening, I am Dr. George Clooney..."

"You guys sure have a weird policy when it comes to hiring doctors with famous names, what happened to Dr Brad Pitt?" Tony chimed in, unable to hide his sarcasm.

Gibbs shook his head. "Not now DiNozzo." he urged, turning back to Dr Clooney. "How is Abby doing?" he repeated.

"Her chart says that you're her emergency contact?" Dr Clooney asked.

"Yes I am. Please tell me that she's going to be fine?" He couldn't hide his fears and his voice was shaking.

"No I can't say anything about that yet. She has taken quite a blow there. She has been extremely lucky that her internal organs didn't suffer any extremely severe damage. The one that stabbed her, most certainly had no knowledge about the human body. If he tried to kill her, he failed miserably. Having that said. we cleaned the wounds, stitched her up and now she's in the Intensive Care Unit. She is stable, but not out of danger. The next 24 to 48 hours will be crucial for her recovery."

Gibbs didn't know what to say or what to feel about the news he just heard. "Can I see her?" he asked instead.

"She can have one visitor, come with me and I'll bring you to her" Dr Clooney said as he started walking towards the door of the waiting room.

Gibbs looked over his shoulder to see if everyone was okay with him going to Abby, but they all nodded.

Upon arriving in the ICU Gibbs had to take necessary precautions like washing his hands, and desinfect them, before he could enter Abby's room. As he was washing up Dr Clooney told him something about what was to be expected.

"Visiting someone in the ICU for the first time can make you feel helpless and anxious, but try not to worry too much. Machines will be beeping at all times and you will hear a lot of noises and sounds. Do not panic if you hear an alarm, sometimes they go off if something needs to be done like a drip that needs to be changed. Your presence will benefit Ms Sciuto in the long run, having someone familiar by your side is always comforting. Please do not hesitate to talk to her, she may not respond but she will feel your presence. Are you ready to go see her?" he ended his speech as he pointed to the room where Abby was lying.

Gibbs swallowed and nodded.

As he entered the room he saw her immediately, tied up to tubes, monitors and whatever else there was but what he didn't know what it was.

She was lying there so pale and fragile.

He stood there next to her, touching her hand, silent tears fell from his eyes as he bent over to softly kiss her cheek and whisper: "Hey babygirl..."


	18. Chapter 17

**A/N:** **Thnx again all!** **  
For the readers that have been paying attention to my storyline:** **I do know that the Kate/Mawher timeline is somewhat off, but I just can't stand Ziva. Not trying to be rude or offend anyone, she just isn't my shizzle. That is why I used Kate**

 **On another note: I'll be out of town for a few days and I'm not sure if I'll be able to write and/or upload anything new anytime soon.** **  
** **Happy valentines day!**

Soft beeps and sounds were audible in the entire intensive care unit. Gibbs wasn't paying attention to any of them, he only had eyes for Abby. He had always known that she was an attractive woman. God! It was through his own stupidity of not letting her know that he loved her so much, that she was in this accursed hospital in the first place. But seeing her here, lying in this hospital bed, made her even more beautiful in a strange way. Some people just had that vulnerability, some hadn't and Abby definately had it.

A nurse came into Abby's room to change her bandages and clean the wounds. They were monitoring her very closely and Gibbs was thankful for that.

"Are you still here, agent Gibbs?" She asked. "You've been sitting here for hours and so is your team, you should all get some rest."

"No m'am, I need to be here. With Abby, she needs me." He answered as he stood up to give her space but not intending on leaving the room, as is the procedure in similar cases.

"Of course it is very heroic of you sacrifce yourself and stay here every minute of every waking hour, but you need your rest too!" She arched an eyebrow and gave him a side eyed stare as she started removing Abby's bandages.

"You don't understand," he said desperately. "It's my fault that she's in here and I could never forgive myself if she..." His voice trailed away, not able to speak his thoughts.

"You listen to me, Lord Gloom. You've been sitting here for 24 hours with not any sleep whatsoever, and who knows how long you have been awake before that. And YOU, of all people, should know that it is not your fault that some psychotic lunatic pulled this stunt on her." She retorted, putting her hands on her sides as she watched him.

That was a step too far for Gibbs.

"Oh yeah..." he squinted and looked at her nametag. "...nurse Higgins? that is none of your damn busi..." he stopped talking because the door to Abby's room was opened. Ducky's head emerged from behind the door.

"Oh Jethro, be nice. Nurse Higgins is giving you the best advice there is, you really should get some rest and stop blaming yourself for what Mikel did."

Nurse Higgins resumed her task, quickly changed the bandaids and left the room.

Gibbs didn't even care how Ducky knew what was just said between him and nurse Higgins. He only knew that he wasn't moving an inch away from Abby.

"I'm staying." he stated firmly as he repositioned himself in his chair, taking Abby's hand in his own and turning on the cd player that DiNozzo brought to the hospital after he went home to take a nap. Gibbs had asked him to compile a cd of Abby's favorite songs, so he could softly play them for her and he hoped... God he hoped that it would help Abby to recover faster.

Ducky sighed, turned around and walked away just as David Draiman's soft voice started singing

"Hello darkness my old friend

I've come to talk with you again

because a vision softly creeping

left its seeds while I was sleeping

and the vision that was planted in my brain

still remains

within the sound of silence."

And as Ducky was walking out of Abby's room, he stopped to look through the window and saw that Gibbs had fallen asleep with his head on the edge of Abby's bed, his hand holding hers tightly and Ducky smiled as he continued his way home.

Gibbs was so tired when he fell asleep that he didn't notice any movement behind Abby's eyelids. She was waking up and she didn't know where she was or what was happening around her. She tried to lift herself up, but her entire body was aching and she found herself unable to move. And then she remembered what happened. Everything came back so vividly that she gasped for air, her eyes wide with panic.

At that moment Tony entered the room, planning to check on his boss who apparently was sound asleep and he found Abby in a state of panic.

He rushed over to the other side of the bed, trying not to wake up Gibbs because Ducky had told him that he finally fell asleep. His boss was probably gonna slap him silly for the rest of his life if he found out that he was sleeping just as Abby was waking up, but he was willing to take that risk.

He took Abby's hand in his to calm her down and he started signing.

"Can you see me, Abby?" was his first question.

Abby nodded slowly.

"Okay, listen. I need you to calm down. You're in the hospital, do you remember what happened to you? Just answer yes or no to my questions." he signed

Abby nodded again.

"Are you in any pain?" he asked

"Yes" Abby nodded

"Okay, I will go get a nurse in a minute. Please try and get some sleep. Gibbs is here beside you, sleeping like a baby. Please don't wake him up, otherwise I will not live this down for the rest of my life." he signed with a funny look on his face.

Abby tried to smile but failed miserably and instead she closed her eyes. Those few moments with Dinozzo had been exhausting and she only wanted to sleep. Tony softly kissed her on her cheek before he left the room.

After Tony spotted nurse Higgins and asked her if she could give Abby some pain medication without waking up Gibbs, he immediately went back to the waiting room.

"How are they?" McGee demanded, wanting to know if there were any changes.

"I thought you were asleep, McSleepyhead?" Tony retorted. "Sorry, Tim. I'm just a little tensed." he understood that now wasn't the time for one of his McNickname jokes. They were all just so tired and therefor cranky as hell.

"No problem, Tony. I just wanna know if there's any news?" McGee didn't feel like arguing at all.

"Gibbs is sound asleep with his head on the edge of Abby's bed..." He stopped talking and felt the tension rise.

"WHAT, Tony?!" Kate urged. She couldn't handle Tony's teasing behaviour.

"Abby just woke up." he said as a huge grin of relief spread on his face.

Kate slapped him on the shoulder. "You idiot! Why did you leave us hanging there? You're such a pig!" but she fell around his neck and gave him the biggest hug ever. They had never ever been so relieved, and they started giggling like three teenage girls.


	19. Chapter 18

**A/N: A tiny update this time as my friend was so kind to let me use her computer**

 _"_ _Do not make me say a magic word now, Abs_ _."  
"_ _Of course not. But it is a cool idea. It's in the blood patterns. The residual splatter from where the blood struck is there. Exit wound splatter is there. Dropping suddenly from the angle of the impact_."  
 _"Normal when they pass through flesh."  
"Very good, Gibbs! But that would be the case of a Senior Lead Special Agent who's worked hundreds of crime-scene investigations throughout his storied career."_  
 _"I'd hate to start smacking you like I do DiNozzo."  
"You wouldn't!"_

 _"you would?  
" it won't be on the head…"_

Gibbs was sleeping so deep that he didn't notice any movement underneath his hand. He was indulging in the dream he had. The dreams that had changed over the past few months. Dreams that had shifted from Shannon and Kelly into Abby more often than he'd like to admit to himself.

Abby couldn't help but staring at the silver hair that peeked over the edge of her bed. She woke up as he finally fell asleep and she had been gazing at his hair eversince, trying to understand why he would be here. But she couldn't. Not after he made her feel so rejected in the gas station.  
She tried to pull her hand from underneath his, but he was holding it so tightly that she didn't stand a chance of succeeding. She sighed and closed her eyes. She couldn't look at him anymore, knowing that she would never be his "one".

Somewhere in the midst of all his dreams, Gibbs felt Abby's hand moving. He didn't register it at first, but her trying to pull her hand away would surely wake up a special agent with sniperskills. So he woke up and stretched. Sitting cramped up and sleeping in a crappy hospital chair for God only knows how many hours, wasn't too good for his aging body.

"Abby?" he whispered.  
But Abby didn't respond. She was awake, sure, but she just didn't feel like talking at the moment.  
"Abby, come on girl. I know you're in there somewhere and I know you're awake." He squeezed her hand, remembering all the times she slept at his house trying too fool him into believing she was sleeping when she actually wasn't. It always made her giddy and he started smiling when he remembered. He bent over to kiss her softly on her forehead, and gently brush away a strand of hair as he cupped her face with his hand.

Abby couldn't pretend to be asleep any longer and she mentally slapped herself for getting so close to Gibbs that he even knew when she was pretend-sleeping.

"Gibbs… Why are you here?"  
A wave of relief went through his body as he heard her voice for the first time since she woke up.  
"You know why I'm here." He replied and he felt his stomach cramp up as he distinctly remembered that they had had this conversation before. Only it was the other way round in his basement and that one wasn't a nice conversation.

"you weren't there in the gas station." She stated matter of factly, mentally slapping herself again for putting him through this, but she had to. Oh God! Those puppy eyes nearly killed her and she turned her head away from him.

"Abby, don't do this to me, PLEASE!" he begged, his voice breaking. "You have no idea how much I wished it was yesterday and maybe if I could just close my eyes and then open them again it will be."  
"Have you any idea how scared I was?" she said, ignoring his plea  
"I know."  
"Have you any idea how much I needed you there? Her voice filled with anguish.  
"I know."  
"Stop saying I know!"  
"What do you want me to say?" he asked, realizing that Abby needed to get this out. She'd been tortured and she took her anger and fear out on him.

The door to Abby's room was pushed open and Tony came in. He saw Gibbs and Abby awkwardly staring at eachother.


	20. Chapter 19

"Woops! Sorry! I'll be leaving now." Tony instantly turned around when he saw Abby's and Gibbs' tensed faces. Her fingers pluckig her blanket and his hands clenching the end of her bed. Both not about to give in one inch and his eyes locked with hers.

"No Tony. You can stay here. I need some fresh air anyway." Gibbs motioned Tony to take his seat as he finally tore his gaze away from Abby. Tony saw the hurt and despair flashing across his boss' face. But he knew that trying to get him to talk would backfire pretty quickly. And so he took the seat as Gibbs turned around and walked out of the room.

"What was that, Abby?" He asked the forensic scientist, stretching out his legs under her bed and wrapping his hands behind his head.

Abby sighed deeply and tried to change the subject.

"Thank you for being here, Tony. And thank you for saving me back in that gas station." She hoped that he wouldn't notice her trying to avoid his question. But hey, let's face it: this was very special agent Anthony DiNozzo we were talking about. There was no way he was going to let her off the hook.

"Cute, Abs! He said and he smirked. "You are most welcome. But you do realize that I wasn't the only one coming to your rescue, now was I? So, spill the beans. What just happened between you and Gibbs?"

Abby hesitated briefly before she started speaking.

"I... I might have accidentally accused him of not being there for me when I was lying there..." she blinked sadly and turned her head away so she didn't have to look Tony in the eyes.

"Oh Abby" Tony rubbed his hand over his face. "You have no idea, don't you?" He had worry in his voice.

Abby tried to shrug her shoulders and was painfully reminded as to why she was in the hospital.

"Ouch!" She exclaimed, followed by a soft "dammit!"

DiNozzo waited for her to catch her breath again before he started to speak.

"Abs, you cannot blame him for the fact that that psycho lunatic got to you in that gas station. Mawher would've found you anyway. Besides, we were there as soon as McBolo tracked your cellphone..."

"I KNOW Tony, I just can't look him in the eyes knowing that he will never feel the same about me as I do about him and it just frustrates me SO much." Abby cut off Tony mid-sentence, took a deep breath and continued: "I just can't help but to blame him, because if I don't I might get too attached. I don't think I'd survive it if he rejects me." She ended in a soft tone of voice and Tony could barely hear those last words she spoke, but he knew her well enough to understand where she was going.

"Well, the best advice that I can give you at the moment is to get some rest and please do not shut Gibbs out like that. He deserves more credit than you're giving him right now. You have not seen him, Abby, when he came back from his walk. And you have not seen him when he saw you lying there on the ZNN news..." Tony was sure that Gibbs would kill him single handedly if he knew what he was about to say to Abby, but he didn't care. "Abs, he loves you..."

But Abby wasn't going to surrender so fast.

"Oh, I'm sure Tony. Just like he loves you, and Tim, and Kate, and Ducky and Palmer... Just as a friend." she whispered and she closed her eyes.

"I guess you and Gibbs have to figure it out for yourselves then." he sighed as he stood up to leave to give her some much needed rest.

Gibbs went outside after his altercation with Abby, feeling more insecure by the minute. He sat himself down on the ground with his back against the hospital wall and leaned his head backwards, so the frail sun could shine on his face. He needed the alone time. Facing Tony, Tim, Kate, and Jimmy, who were all in the waiting room, waiting patiently for their turn to visit Abby, wasn't what he wanted right now. He was worried that if Abby kept taking her feelings out on him, that she would never ever understand how much he actually loved her and as of right now he didn't have an instant solution to fix this.

So he just sat there, pondering about how to best approach this when Tony came outside and sat next to him.

"You okay, boss?" he asked.

"She's never going to let me live this down, isn't she, Tony?" He stated without even looking once at his senior field agent.

"I know more people have said it, but she's just taken quite a blow. And she's convinced that you basically hate her. She didn't say that with so many words, but that was the gist of what she just told me." Tony glanced sideways at his boss.

"Yeah, DiNozzo, I had figured that out for myself already. What else is new?" Gibbs stood up and mentally prepared himself for going back to Abby.

"She's asleep now." Tony stated simply.

Back in Abby's room, Gibbs hesitated to take his seat again. He just stood there, not knowing if she wanted him to be around. When he finally decided that maybe she needed more alone time and turned around to leave the room, he heard her soft voice.

"Hey Gibbs..."

"Hey Abs..." He whispered as he turned back and stood at the end of her bed. His gaze locked again with hers.

They had been staring at eachother for what seemed like ages when they both finally got the courage to speak.

"I'm so so..."

"Abby..."

They laughed and Gibbs rushed over to grab her hand and sit beside her.

"Gibbs, I never meant to blame you for what happened in the gas station..." She hesitated. Gibbs understood that she needed more time to tell him what was on her mind, so he said: "I know, Abs." as his eyes were soaking up the beauty of her face, his hands playing gently with her fingers. Suddenly he saw her mouth twitching as if she couldn't suppress a grin and he raised an eyebrow. "what, Abby?" he asked with a puzzled look on his face.

"I thought that I just yelled at you the other minute that you should stop saying I know." and a grin spread across her face.

"You, young lady, are messing with the feelings of an old man, you know that?" he softly said to her as a wave of relief came over him. At least she wasn't angry anymore.

"Am not!" Abby retorted jokingly with that slight pout of hers and Gibbs felt his knees go weak as he suppressed the urge to jump up and kiss her. Dammit, she was gonna be the death of him if she continued like that.

"All joking aside, Gibbs," Abby said as her gaze fixed on his hand holding hers. "I'm so sorry for blaming you. I guess I just didn't want to face your rejection after our fight." She took a deep breath and looked him in the eye, anxiously waiting for what he was about to say.

"What rejection, Abs?" he asked, his eyes narrowing.

"Are you really gonna make me say it out loud?" she asked in total disbelief.

Gibbs couldn't help but laugh out loud, her face was just priceless but he just couldn't do this to her. Not after what she had been through.

"Abby, listen to me. I would never ever ever reject you. I feel such a bastard for behaving the way I did back at home, but I just didn't know how to react to you." She hung onto every word he was saying.

"Feeling in my gut that you were in danger and finding out what that son of a bitch was doing to you were the worst moments of my life." his voice broke when he rememberd and he started crying.

Abby squeezed his hand, patiently waiting for him to talk again.

"Abs, baby..." he stood up, bent over and pressed his soft and warm lips against hers in a soft kiss. "I love you so much." he whispered.


	21. Chapter 20

Abby closed her eyes as his lips touched hers. Wow, that wasn't what she expected and she didn't know how to react when he told her he loves her. It made her shy and she sighed deeply when he sat down in his chair again.

"Wow, Gibbs..."

"Yeah, that's what they all tell me." He told her with a twinkle in his eyes. "Sorry, couldn't resist." he said, laughing out loud.

Abby was still catching her breath and she turned a shade of dark red that would've made a lobster very jealous.

Gibbs understood that she needed time to process these changes.

"Why don't you get some rest, Abs? The rest of the team is eager to come and say hi to you and they're basically harrassing me everytime I enter the waiting room to see if they can see you already."

He brushed his fingers through her hair as he stood up. "Besides, I have a couple of things to take care of, so I need to go anyway. Just wanted to make sure that you'll be fine."

Abby nodded.

Gibbs gently kissed her one last time before he left the room.

Abby couldn't believe what just happened. She'd been so sure that Gibbs... well maybe not that he hated her, but she wasn't aiming for this either. She felt all warm and fuzzy and fell in a deep and healing sleep for the first time since she came to the hospital.

Gibbs felt like he was on cloud 9 while walking into the waiting room, struggling to maintain his pokerface. But now was probably not the right time yet to make any announcements, eventhough he couldn't resist the urge to wink at DiNozzo, letting him know that he and Abby were on speaking terms again. DiNozzo's face lit up and he put two thumbs up in the air.

"Did she... Have the 2 of you..." He signed to his boss.

"None of your damn business, DiNozzo." Gibbs retorted with his hands, but the smug boyish grin on his face said more than a thousand words and DiNozzo felt himself get emotional. He had seen his boss and Abby tiptoeing around eachother for so long and he was so happy for them that they finally gave into eachother.

"What's going on, Anthony?" Ducky tried to get DiNozzo's attention as he saw what just happened between him and Gibbs. DiNozzo, tearing his gaze away from Gibbs, who was silently speaking to kate, asked: "With what, Ducky?"

"You know what I mean, Tony." He replied as he nodded intently in Gibbs' direction.

"Well, he just told me that it was none of my damn business, but he's looking forward to a horizontal salsa with Abby if I'm not mista... OUCH! What was that for?!" He exclaimed, his eyes wide with offence and rubbing the back of his head.

"Go wash your mouth with soap, Anthony. You were way out of line." Ducky said as he stood up to walk over to Gibbs.

"Jethro, is Abby ready for other visitors than you and DiNozzo?" He asked his friend staring at him with his friendly gaze.

"Sure, Duck. But she's asleep now, you might want to wait until she wakes up, she needs her rest."

"Will do, Jethro, what are you going to do?"

"I have a few errands to run, I'll be back as soon as I can."

"Is there anything I can help you with?"

"Not at the moment, but I might need you later." Gibbs was about to end the conversation and he waved at DiNozzo, motioning him to come over.

"What's up, boss?" he asked his boss with a questioning gaze in his eyes.

"Do you remember those christmas decorations Abby brought with her when the two of you came over to my house?"

"I guess those are a little hard to forget, Gibbs. Especially considering the circumstances we're in at the moment."

Gibbs couldn't figure out if Tony was mocking him. He didn't want to bicker over it, so he simply shrugged his shoulders and said: "I need you to go find them and put them up in my living room. And don't say it!" He caught Tony's attempt to open his mouth.

"Not saying anything, boss." Tony looked at his boss with innocent puppy eyes.

"Don't THINK it!" Gibbs was hiding his amusement. He knew Tony could be a pain in the royal butt, but he sure wouldn't want to live without him.

"Uhm, yeah... too late." Tony said and sprinted away before his boss could slap him on the head.

Gibbs laughed out loud and turned to the rest of his team.

"I gotta go, be back as soon as possible. Anyone need anything?" he asked as he looked around, but no one responded. They were all tired from lack of sleep and hanging in crappy hospital chairs, but they all wanted to see Abby so they didn't complain.

Gibbs took their silence as a sign that he was free to go and he left the hospital. While walking to his car he was thinking about kissing Abby and he felt butterflies in his tummy. He knew they had to talk about stuff. Loads of stuff, but he was confident that they could work through anything. He felt like a huge weight was lifted off of his shoulders and as he realized that he could not only finally give in to his feelings for Abby, he also realized that he could enjoy those feelings without feeling guilty about Shannon and Kelly.

As he was about to open the door of his car, his phone rang.

"Yeah, Gibbs." He answered as he got behind his wheel.

"Where are you, Jethro?" Fornells voice sounded a bit edgy and Gibbs felt his stomach churn.

"Getting in my car. I just left the hospital. What's going on?" He asked as he got out of his car again and made sure his gun was where it was supposed to be.

"Mawher escaped and we think he's on his way to either you or Abby." He sighed deeply as he waited for Gibbs to say something. When he got no answer he cleared his throat and said, his voice shaking: "Jethro, he took my gun."

Gibbs didn't hesitate a moment. He hung up on Fornell and started running back to the hospital. Dammit! This wasn't what was supposed to happen, not now. Not when he just told Abby that he loves her.

Back in the hospital he went straight to Abby's room because if he was right, and he was rarely wrong, Mikel would go straight to Abby first. And he would be waiting.

Abby woke up when Gibbs entered her room.

"Gibbs, you're back? I thought you had to take care of some stuff?" She asked sleepily.

"Yeah baby, but something came up. Listen, try to stay calm. Fornell just called me that Mikel is on his way to the hospital, and I'll bet that he's not coming to apologize." He grabbed his phone and called McGee, who was still sitting in the waiting room. He urged him to let Mawher come to Abby's room, told him that they should not do anything when he walked past them, and he hung up again.

When he turned back to abby he saw that she was looking at him, her eyes big with fear.

"Relax Abs, He's not going to hurt you." He sat himself down on the edge of her bed, positioning his body in a way that would protect her from anything that Mikel could do to her.

"You're just saying that to make me feel better." She couldn't suppress the fear in her voice.

"Did it?"

"Yeah, can you say it again?"

At that moment someone entered the room. Gibbs turned around and saw Mikel standing there. Instinctively laying his hand on Abby's waist and reaching for his gun, he saw Mikel lift his arm and aim the gun he stole from Fornell.

"Finally Gibbs," Michael started talking as his trademark psychotic grin came over his face. "At last I have the chance to kill you and claim Abby as my own." He started laughing maniacally, his finger tightening around the trigger.

"You really are that stupid aren't you, Mikel?" Gibbs clenched his jaw in anger and before Mikel could even realize what was happening, Gibbs had aimed his gun and pulled the trigger.

Mikel started falling to the ground in slow motion, his eyes wide in disbelief and his mouth opened in a silent scream.

Gibbs put his gun back in his holster. "Bye bye, Bubba." and he knew that Abby would never have to fear for her life again.


	22. Chapter 21

**A/N: A ginormous thank you to the readers that are sticking with me through this whole fic. It is SO much appreciated, I love you all with every fiber of my being. So far I think this is my best and favorite chapter. Enjoy!**

In the commotion that followed Gibbs' gunshot, he immediately turned around back to Abby. He knew she was extremely sensitive and he did, after all, shoot her ex-boyfriend. He figured that there was going to be some backlash at some point.

"You okay, Abs?" He asked her, trying to wrap his arms around her as best as he could with all the tubes and machines that she was still attached to.

She nodded against his shoulder. Gibbs lifted his hand and softly ran his fingers down her neck. The gentle touch of his fingertips made her weak and she broke down, crying out in agony. Gut-wrenching sobs were filling the room and he felt his stomach cramp up, trying not to start crying himself.

"Oh Abs," he whispered in her ear, cupping the back of her head with his hand. "I'm so sorry." He sat with her like that for what seemed like forever, holding her as tight as possible and waiting for her to calm down.

After a while the gut-wrenching sobs slowly faded into soft sniffing and Gibbs cradled Abby in his arms, waiting for her to catch her breath again.

Finally she lifted her head and looked up at him.

"Why, Gibbs?" Was all she asked, a questioning look lingering in her eyes.

He was surprised by her question. "Why? Abby, that whackjob would've killed us both if I hadn't shot him first!" He exclaimed as he looked at her in total disbelief. Really? This was all she could ask?

"I'm not talking about Mikel, Gibbs." Abby stated as her voice faded and her gaze drifted to the people that were removing Mikel's body and securing the place for investigation.

"Then what are you talking about?" He asked, suddenly realizing full well what was about to come.

"Why do you love me?" Unable to look him in the eyes she turned her head away from him, scared that it was somehow only a dream and that he would change his mind.

He softly turned her head back so she would have to look at him.

"Abs" he started with a soft voice as his eyes locked with hers, a weird sensation crawling up in his stomach and his heart started racing. God, she was so beautiful... For a moment he was unable to say anything, he could only absorb the lines on her face and take in her scent. Lines he had seen so many times, a scent he had smelled so often as he gave it to her for her birthday. Little things that had always been there, but all of a sudden started to make so much more sense.

He shook his head as he tried to find the words to make her understand how he felt.

"Abby... I... I have been in love with you for so long, but I just couldn't... I'm so sorry." His voice trailed off when he spoke to her, and he dropped his head because he couldn't look her in her eyes anymore. He was unsure of her feelings for him.

"Gibbs..." Abby mumbled, trying to process his confession, not knowing what to do with herself.

She just kept staring at his silver hair, feeling so overwhelmed.

"Gibbs, look at me." She whispered.

He slowly turned his head back to her, his eyes dim with emotion.

"Are you sure?" She asked him, "I mean, what I really need to know is if you're gonna love me no matter what. Because I can not give my everything now and get even more attached to you than I already am, and having you taking it all away again when things get rough." Her hands were moving restlessly over her blanket.

Gibbs took her hand in his and said "The reason I never told you I love you in the first place was BECAUSE I didn't want you to get hurt. Abs, you're the only one who has ever been able to see my true colors, You're the only one who has ever been able to handle me not only at my best, but also at my worst. And you have never held anything against me, you have loved me unconditionally through it all. Please don't ever think that I didn't notice that..." His voice trailed off again.

"But Shannon and Kelly, right?" Abby softly said.  
"Yes. They are still so very much a part of me. They're still in my house, in my heart, in my blood and in my veins. I thought that falling in love with you would mean that I would be betraying them, and I just couldn't live with that." Silent tears rolled down his cheeks. "and on the other hand there was this gorgeous lady, with a beautiful smile that found a way to creep into my heart. And I never wanted to put her through the agony of being with a man that I wasn't sure could give her what she so deserves. Abs, I'm scarred. I'm not going to deny any of that. I'm not your everyday happy-go-lucky fella, but I know deep down that you can handle that and that we can work through everything." He ended with a deep sigh.

Abby felt her senses overflow with love for this man, sitting on the edge of her bed pouring his heart out to her. She laid her hand across his chest. The steady pace of his heart comforted her, like nothing or no one else could.

"You know I will never ask you to completely forget about Shannon and Kelly. I want them in our lives too, you know? I never want you to think that I would take away something that is so important to you. Gibbs, you have been my world for the past 10 years and I want you to stay my world for the rest of our lives. I don't care if you're scarred. I love you, I have always loved you and I will always love you."

"Oh babygirl" Gibbs whispered. He leaned in and as their gaze met, his eyes flickered slowly from her eyes down to her lips and then back up again. His breathing faltered as he gently pressed his warm and soft lips against Abby's. A sharp, tingling sensation seared through his body as she softly moaned when he kissed her.

Her hand caressed his chest and she slowly let it trail down to his stomach, losing herself in his kiss. She felt his fingers tangling themselves in her hair, and her hand had nearly reached his belt.

"Abby, please don't." He begged her softly with a hoarse voice and closed eyes, resting his forehead against hers, heavily panting from the kiss and all the emotions that were so overwhelming to him.

Opening his eyes again he saw her gazing at him with a glimmer of hurt flashing through her eyes, and he couldn't help but grin.

"Sweetheart, it's not that I don't want to," he said, kissing her gently while talking. "You need to rest and get better first." He took a deep breath.

"You, young lady, are gonna be the death of me."

And they both knew that everything would work out just fine.


	23. Chapter 22

"Guys, guys! You gotta see this!"

Tony was gathering his coworkers who were all over the place to work on the crimescene that Mawher just created.

"What, Tony?!" Kate asked with an agitated voice, straightening up from kneeling down. Then her gaze fell on the window and she saw Gibbs finally kiss Abby.

"Well, it took them long enough." She simply stated, a relieved grin flashing on her face.

They all started cheering and clapping.

Being pulled from the daze they were in, Gibbs and Abby both looked in the direction of where the noise was coming from. They saw the entire team standing there with big smiles on their faces and their thumbs up in the air.

Unable to hide his amusement, Gibbs turned to Abby. "Good news travels fast, I guess." He stated dryly, and Abby couldn't help but laugh. "OUCH!" she exclaimed, being reminded that laughing wasn't exactly a smart move.

Gibbs looked at her in shock. "You okay, babe? Did I hurt you?" He jumped up from her bed, afraid that he was the one causing her pain.  
"No Gibbs, you didn't do anything. Sit back down and let me look at you." She retorted, taking his hand in hers.

"Do you mind that they now know?" Abby asked softly, gazing into Gibbs' eyes.

"Nah, of course I don't. They already knew anyway if I understood DiNozzo correctly. But I was busy ignoring a red traffic light to get to you, so I'm not sure if I heard him right. Do you mind?" He stared at her with a tensed look on his face, so she didn't answer right away. She liked having him hanging there for a moment. She just had a quirky sense of humor.

"Abs?" He pleaded, getting more nervous by the second.

"It'll depend, Gibbs."

"On what?" He asked.

She stayed silent.

"Oh come on, Abs. You're just trying to push my buttons, aren't you? He narrowed his eyes in an attempt to gauge her reaction.

"I tried to do that a few minutes ago, but someone wasn't cooperating." She stated simply, enjoying the teasing. She knew by the way he kissed her that he wanted her just as much as she wanted him. As she had always wanted him.

"For Pete's sake, Abs, do you really want me to say it?"

"Yes." She replied without any qualms.

"Okay, you asked for it." He said as he bent over to softly kiss her in the neck. "Baby, you turn me on like no one else does." his voice soft and he pressed his warm lips on the other side of her neck. "You make my knees go weak and my heart race." He could see her closing her eyes and he kissed her behind her ear. "You make me lose my mind everytime I look at you." He could feel her trying to catch her breath underneath him and he kissed her on her mouth. "Now tell me: do YOU mind anyone knowing about us?" His eyes, dark with lust, locked with hers.

"No." She said, slightly panting.. staring into his bright babyblue eyes.

"Good." He stated with a content smirk.

They both jumped up because someone cleared his throat and said: "I'd like to have a word with you, Gibbs. If you two lovebirds don't mind?"

"Oh hi Leon." Gibbs jumped up from Abby's bed again when he saw Vance standing there. "No, no problem at all, be there in a sec." He turned back to Abby. "You'll be okay?" He asked, stroking her cheek with his finger.

"Yeah, I'll be fine. You go ahead, I'm not going anywhere for a while." She joked, adoringly gazing up at him.

"Gibbs!" She called while he was walking out of her room. Turning around he looked at her with a puzzled face.

"I love you." She signed.

"I love you too, sweetpea!" He said as he closed the door behind him.

"What happened to rule #12, Gibbs?" Vance turned around to Gibbs with a stern look on his face. Gibbs tilted his head in disbelief. "Well, maybe I'm about to change some rules. You have a problem with that, Leon?" He said as he straightened his back, realizing that not everyone was going to be all peachy about this new situation.

Suddenly Vance started to smile.

"Good for you, Jethro. I hope you and Miss Sciuto will live happily ever after, it sure took you guys long enough."

Gibbs smirked. "God, Leon, even YOU knew?"

"Well, I AM the director of NCIS, so it is my job to know things. But I think I can safely say that you have been walking around with a giant billboard above your head for the past couple of years. What took you so long, Jethro?"

"Personal issues." He simply stated.

"As in having your head so far up your butt you could see out of your belly button?"

"What?!"

"Come on Gibbs. Eversince I came to work here I have seen you and Miss Sciuto dance around eachother, and it hurt me to see my 2 best team members and friends cause themselves so much pain and agony." Vance sighed deeply.

"Why didn't you say anything?" Gibbs asked.

"Are you kidding me? Would you have listened to me if I did?"

"No."

"It is a shame that it took this drama for you to finally admit to your feelings. But it has happened, we can not turn it back. Listen Jethro, if I ever find out that you're either hurting or disappointing Abby, you'll have hell to pay."

"On your six, boss"

"Now tell me, how is she doing?" Vance wanted to know. "Has this had any impact on her yet?".

"Yeah, she had a nervous breakdown right after I took Mawher down, but other than that they keep her sedated at night so she can at least sleep. Not sure how this is going to affect her in the long run though, but I'm sure there will be countless nightmares and breakdowns. Which is only normal after what she has been through."

"The both of you will have to have a psych evaluation and some sessions with the shrink before we can get you back to work, you know that, right?"

"I'm not going to no shrink, Leon. I'm fine." Gibbs felt the hairs on the back of his neck rising at the thought of having to go see a shrink. The psych evaluation was fine, he knew it was NCIS protocol if he wanted to get back to work. Vance knew it was no use at the moment to push Gibbs into something he didn't want.

"We'll see about that. You just make sure for now that Miss Sciuto will be in good hands. And Jethro..."

"Yeah?"

"Good job on taking Mawher down. You will not get into trouble for this."

"Thanks Leon."

After getting himself a cup of coffee, he walked back to Abby's room. His team was still working to clean everything up after their tiny investigation. No one had wanted to put a lot of effort into it and for just this once Vance was not nagging them about it. Mikel had gotten what he deserved.

Gibbs came to a halt next to the window of Abby's room. As he peered through it he saw that she'd fallen asleep. He took a sip from his coffee and gathered his team.

"Guys, go home for tonight. You get some rest and be here tomorrow all bright and shiny. Abby is sleeping so she won't be able to see you anyway."

"You're staying here, boss?" McGee asked.

"Yeah I am, Tim." He replied as he wrapped his arms around his probie. "Good job, kid. Thank you for being here and for helping save Abby." He suddenly felt tiredness creeping up in his body. He hugged them all, glad that no one got hurt. And making a promise to himself that he wouldn't be such a grumpy, old git anymore.

"See you tomorrow, boss." They said simultaneously.

He lifted his coffeecup in response. After he emptied it, he went back in Abby's room, sat down in his chair and fell in a deep sleep.


	24. Chapter 23

Surprisingly, or maybe not so surprisingly, Abby was recovering quickly. It didn't take long before she was going to be transferred to a normal room. Knowing and feeling that Gibbs loved her made her so happy that it helped her body heal faster.

This morning she was particularly happy because nurse Higgins had detached her from all of the tubes and machines, and doctor Clooney had just informed her that she would be leaving the intensive care unit.

"You don't happen to have a honeymoon suite, do you?" She joked to Dr Clooney.

"No, but I might have something you like better." He said mysteriously. They all had come to adore Abby, which was no surprise of course, with her sparkly and bubbly personality. Even when she was at her worst, she would try to make everyone laugh. They also had gotten accustomed to Gibbs being around all the time and the rest of the team dropping in whenever they felt like it. That was one of the perks of working for NCIS: you'd never have to worry about visiting hours and other rules, you got a hallpass anyway.

"Oooh, such as?" Abby's face lit up and she was wondering what the surprise would be.

"We are moving you to a room with multiple beds, so you can have everyone come over for a pajama party." He started laughing as soon as he saw her face.

"Are you serious? I mean, isn't that against hospital protocol?" Abby gazed at Dr Clooney in disbelief.

"This is indeed not something we'd normally do, but we know how well you recover when your boyfriend and friends are around, so we'll gladly make an exception."

Abby started giggling at the sound of boyfriend. Of course Gibbs and her were an item now, but they hadn't discussed it in depth yet. Hearing someone else calling him her boyfriend for the first time, got her all giddy.

Abby tried to sit up in her bed, and to her surprise she found that it didn't cause her too much pain. Dr Clooney looked intently at her, eager to know how she was doing.

"Does that hurt, Abby?" He asked.

"It is not really comfortable, I must admit that. But I'm suprised to find that I can make small movements pretty easily." She replied as she laid down again.

"That is some good news, Abby. You amaze me, I have never seen someone heal so fast from such wounds as you have." Dr Clooney was scribbling down notes as fast as he could.

"Do you think that means I get to go home before christmas?" She asked nervously.

"Well, I don't see why you wouldn't if you keep making progress like this. We'll just take it one day at a time. Christmas is still 2 weeks away from now. Just get some rest, I'm pretty sure Gibbs will walk in any moment now." He said as he put his pen back in his pocket, shook her hand and walked out of the room.

Indeed. Dr Clooney had barely closed the door behind him as Gibbs came back from his usual morning coffee run. Not immediately paying attention to Abby, he didn't notice that she wasn't tied to any tubes and machines anymore. When he turned to her after he took off his coat and put his coffee down, she saw his eyes getting big with surprise.

"Hey, if that isn't my favorite marine." She started beaming at the sight of him and she hooked her finger behind his belt to pull him in for a kiss.

"Wow Abs, what happened?" He asked after kissing her.

"Dr Clooney said that I'm making very much progress and they're moving me to a different room today." She hesitated. Not knowing if she should tell him that she might be released from the hospital before christmas. After all, that was what got her here in the first place.

But Gibbs wouldn't be Gibbs if he hadn't noticed the hesitation.

"And what, Abs?" He said as he grabbed his coffeecup and took a sip out of it.

"He also said that, if the progress keeps up this way, I might be released out of the hospital before christmas..." She looked away, hoping that she didn't hit one of his nerves.

"What's the problem, Abs?"

"The problem is christmas, Gibbs. You hate it. And I'm sure you're not going to want to have me aroun-" She was silenced by his mouth claiming hers for a kiss.

"I want to have you around, Abs." He stated simply as he brushed a strand of hair behind her ear and cupped her face with his hand.

At that moment nurse Higgins came in and it was time for Abby to get moved to her new room.

"We're going to bring you to your new location now, are you excited?" She asked as she started pushing Abby's bed out of the room, motioning Gibbs to help her.

"I'm glad that I'm free to move now, yes" Abby replied, her eyes on Gibbs, not wanting to let him out of her sight.

It was odd to her that he wouldn't make a problem out of her being released just before christmas. Knowing him he was just avoiding the discussion to not upset her. Someone who had been avoiding christmas for so many years surely wasn't going to do a happy dance about it this year, right?

Pondering away she hadn't noticed that she had come to a halt in her new room.

"There you go, Abby." Nurse Higgins secured the bed in the room, so it wouldn't go anywhere. "Be sure to call if you need anything, okay?"

Abby nodded and nurse Higgins left.

Gibbs sat down in his usual spot on her bed, gazing at Abby and soaking up her beauty.

"You really worry about christmas, Abby?" His thumb caressing her chin and cheeks.

"Yeah, a little."

"Don't. We'll do just fine." His eyes locked with hers and for a moment she couldn't breathe.

"Hold me, Gibbs." She whispered, as she tugged him next to her.

"You sure? What if I hurt you? Your wounds are still healing."

"Just shut up already and come lay next to me." She said impatiently as she turned onto her side.

She sighed contently as he finally laid down and wrapped his arms around her. Feeling his strong, solid and warm body around her calmed her down.

"That feels nice, Gibbs." She wiggled her butt a little to get more comfortable and heard a soft moan coming from the back of Gibbs' throat, followed by a soft whisper in her ear. "Careful, Abs, your butt is in dangerous territory. Oh and by the way, babe: you do realize that I have a first name as well, don't you?"

"Hm hmm," she murmered. "Yes, Jethro. I do. Although I think I prefer to call you Leroy. Or studmuffin. Take your pick."

She felt Gibbs softly chuckling behind her. "Leroy will do just fine, sweetpea. You're irresistable anyways." he said as he softly pressed his lips behind her ear.

"Or maybe I'll just call you Gibbs..." her voice faded as she felt him slowly trail a path with his tongue from her ear, down her neck, to her shoulder. She tilted her head to give him more space as he gently and slowly kissed his way back up. Her skin was on fire and her breathing became shallow.

"Am I hurting you, baby?" He asked.

"No." She panted softly.

"Will you let me know if I do?" He nuzzled her neck

"Yes. Please don't stop..." The urge in her voice sent a shock down his body. He pushed himself up on his elbow, taking some distance before he would do something he'd regret later. Not because he didn't want to, but because it just wasn't the right time.


	25. Chapter 24

"Aaaawwwww, look at how cute they are!"

"Tony, why do you always have to be such a-"

"Such a what, Kate?" Tony interrupted.

"Yeah Kate, explain." McGee chimed in with an amused look on his face.

Kate sighed deeply, shook her head and turned her back to Tony and McGee. Those two were just a bunch of pigs. They had to make fun of everything and she was getting sick of it. "Listen, you losers, I don't nee-" Kate started saying as she turned back around to the special agents behind her. But Tony interrupted her.

"Sshhh Kate! You don't wanna wake up Gibbs!" He whispered. "That just might not be a very smart move."

"Oh, you have any better plans?" Kate retorted as she turned around and looked at Gibbs and Abby. Who had fallen asleep together. Well, they sure did look cute together. No argument there. But Tony always had to be such a wiseass. They all stood there, gazing at their boss.

"It's funny, but in all these years that I have been working under Gibbs' orders, he's never looked so relaxed and I don't know... happy." Tony's voice was soft as he took a trip down memory lane. He had been on a dozen stake-outs with his boss, he had seen girlfriends come and go, he even had risked his own life to save Gibbs out of a sinking car. They had been through everything together, and yet this was the first time that Gibbs looked really peaceful and on cloud 9.

"You done yapping, DiNozzo? Where's my coffee?" Gibbs spoke without opening his eyes.

"How does he always know we're talking about him?" Tony asked.

"Correction Tony. How YOU are always talking about him." Kate corrected him with a teasing smile on her face. She always pretended to be annoyed by Tony, but she was glad he was still alive and enjoyed their bickering more than she'd like to admit to herself.

"COFFEE, DiNozzo!" Gibbs demanded.

"On your six, boss" Tony squealed and hurried away to get some coffee for Gibbs.

Gibbs laughed out loud as Tony ran away and he stretched himself. He'd gotten stiff as a board lying on that small hospital bed.

Being careful to not wake up Abby, he stood up and stretched some more.

"How is she doing, Gibbs?" Kate asked as she handed him a large envelope.

"She's doing unexpectedly well and if she keeps improving the way she does now, she might get released from the hospital before christmas. Is this what I think it is, Katie?"

Kate nodded and Gibbs wrapped her in a big bear hug. "Thanks!" He whispered as he kissed her temple.

"You're cheating on Abby already, Gibbs?" Tony joked as he came back with his boss' coffee.

"Zip it, Tony, I still owe you a couple of thousand headslaps. Don't make me put you in one of these beds here." Gibbs stated without any emotion as he put the envelope in the window sill. Tony was a little taken aback by his boss' attitude towards him and he was wondering what he had done this time to rub Gibbs the wrong way.

"What's with the beds anyway?" McGee chimed in, curious to know why Abby had a whole room to herself.

Gibbs grinned as he started to speak. "Apparently Abby is recovering so well in our presence that her doctor said she should have a pajama party."

"As in with snacks and movies?" McGee asked astounded. "Since when do they do that in a hospital?"

"I don't know, but what if you and Katie make sure there's some good food and drinks, and invite Ducky and Jimmy, Tim? Gibbs asked, avoiding Tony's questioning gaze

"Should I do anything, Gibbs?" Tony asked hesitantly.

"No, DiNozzo. You're staying here." Gibbs sat down in the chair next to Abby's bed with a neutral expression on his face. It made Tony itchy and insecure. He was so sure that he had figured out the mystery that's called Gibbs after all these years of working under his orders. Apparently not. So he sat himself down on the bed that was on the other side of Gibbs, and waited for his boss to start speaking.

But Gibbs didn't talk. He just sat there in silence and Tony got nervous. He was about to open his mouth when Gibbs finally started speaking, his voice soft and calm. "I never properly thanked you for saving Abby in that gas station." He took a deep breath and continued. "If it wasn't for you she'd be dead by now and only God knows how many other people would've died in the process. I owe you so much." Unable to look Tony in the eyes he just sat there, staring over Abby out of the window.

"You don't owe me anything, Gibbs. You would've done the same for me." Tony said quietly.

"If I think about what could have happened to her... I have nightmares..." He said faintly, with a hint of desperation in his voice and finally turned around in his chair with fear and anxiety in his eyes. "I have nightmares of her lying there, bleeding out of every inch of her body and I can't get to her. I can't get to her, Tony!" He exclaimed in agony, clenching his fists in an attempt to restrain himself.

Tony stood up, walked over to Gibbs and kneeled down besides his chair, resting his hand on Gibbs' lower arm.

"Boss, listen to me," Tony urged Gibbs to look him in the eyes. "Abby is NOT dead, she WILL recover and you and her WILL grow old together. Having these nightmares is only normal after what we've all been through. Please, Gibbs, go see the shrink. She can help you to get over this." He was glad that they got to have a sleepover and Gibbs could sleep with Abby in his arms that night, because he realized that the nights Gibbs had spent in his own bed since Abby was in the hospital were pure torture to him.

"Thanks kid." Gibbs ran his hands over his face as he stood up from his chair. "You gonna rent some movies for tonight?" He asked as he gently tried to wake up Abby by softly running his fingers over her hands.

"Yeah no problem, boss. You sure you're done with the grumpy attitude from this morning?"

"Nah. That was because you're a pain in the royal butt." Gibbs stated matter of factly as his mouth twitched into a mischievous grin and he bent over to kiss Abby.


	26. Chapter 25

Abby was waking up to a gentle feeling on her face. Soft lips finding their way across her cheek to hers and then claiming her mouth as their own. She felt her mattress sink as Gibbs sat his body down next to her on her bed.

She slowly opened her eyes and smiled at the sight of her latest love interest.

"Hey Gibbs, did you sleep well?" She asked him, planting her hand on his inner thigh, making him shiver at her touch. His breathing deepened as he felt her hand on his leg and it took a lot of effort to not start stuttering.

"Yeah, I slept okay. Not my usual routine to fall asleep again after breakfast, but I enjoyed our nap. And I think I could even get used to it. And you?" He answered, taking her hand in his and tangling his fingers with hers.

"I'm not sure. I had some weird dreams, but I guess that's normal after almost being sliced and diced into tiny little pieces. Surely I will get many more of those buggers..." Her voice trailed off as she remembered her unfortunate fate in the gas station.

"Don't worry, Abs, I'm here and I'll keep you safe, even from those nightmares."

"Nightmares you yourself have too, Gibbs?" Abby looked him straight in the eyes.

"You heard my conversation with DiNozzo." Gibbs stated matter of factly, his eyes narrowing as he felt a feeling of anger rise in his chest. Abby already had been through enough crap and now she had heard his conversation with DiNozzo too. The last thing he needed was her worrying about him.

"I'm sorry, Abby. You weren't supposed to hear that conversation. Please don't get yourself worked up over this, we will get through this together."

"I guess we will, but how long will it take?" Abby asked desperately.

"Just as long as we both will need to recover from this. We just need to take our time and not rush things."

"Hmm, if you say so. What's in that envelope?" Abby looked at it with a curious look on her face, before she looked up at Gibbs again.

"oh, that... Yeah, that's on a need to know basis." He mumbled as he stood up from her bed.

"What?" an uneasy feeling came over her. Was he already hiding secrets from her?

"Come on, Abs. You know what a need to know basis is, and you don't NEED to know. Yet." Gibbs could barely hide his amusement when he saw the look on her face.

Usually he had no problems with keeping a surprise a secret for her. Hell! She even spent an entire day scrutinizing his every move when she thought he had forgotten her birthday. But this one was the cherry on the top of the cake and he just couldn't wait to surprise her.

As he stood there looking at her, trying to find the words to distract her, the door was opened and nurse Higgins came into the room to check up on Abby.

"Agent Gibbs, you're here... again." She stated as she walked over to Abby's bed.

"Hm hmm. Any problems with that, nurse Higgins?" His tone somewhat offensive as this woman had an uncanny ability to rub him the wrong way.

"Well considering the fact that I'm gonna check if Abby needs new bandages, or that maybe we could do with a little less fabric, it would be nice to have you out of the way." She retorted with a sarcastic voice.

Abby was looking at it as if she was following a pingpong match. She could almost feel Gibbs' hairs rising in his neck and she decided to do something before things would spiral out of control. She knew him so well. So she took his hand in hers and tugged it softly, motioning him to bend over to her.

"Gibbs, you'd better do what she says. I'll be fine over here. Besides, you need to get some fresh air, you look a little pale." She snorted at her own joke.

"What? You're trying to tell me I look like crap?" his eyes locked with hers.

"GIBBS! She exclaimed in mock surprise, "I would NEVER EVER say something like that to you." Unable to contain her laughter, her eyes started sparkling and her mouth twitched into a widespread grin.

"One day you will pay for this, Abs." Gibbs said simply as he softly kissed her. "I gotto go now anyways, I have a couple of things to do. The rest of the team will come later today, they're bringing food and movies for a sleepover. You'll be okay?"

"Yeah snugglebug, don't worry. Still not going anywhere. I'll be fine."

"Okay, I'll be back as soon as I can." He said as he straightened his back and gave nurse higgins a side eyed Gibbs stare as he walked out of the room.

"He's a tough cookie to deal with, isn't he Abby?" Nurse Higgins asked as she started to remove Abby's bandages.

"Tough cookie? Are you kidding me? He's just a big ole, sweet teddybear. Sure, he growles every now and then, but you just have to see through all that." Abby's facial features softened at the thought of Gibbs.

"Not sure if he wants me to, but I do know that that man is crazy about you. You should have seen him when we just moved you to the intensive care unit. He never let you out of his sight and he was giving everyone a hard time."

"Yeah, that sounds like Gibbs. How are the wounds holding up?" Abby was trying to get a look at her wounds but nurse Higgins wouldn't let her.

"You realize that you might not like to see your wounds, are you sure you're ready for it?"

"Oh please, I'm a forensic scientist, I'm sure I have seen worse." Abby said, but couldn't entirely keep the nerves out of her voice.

"Wow Abby, your wounds are healing up so fast and so nicely." Nurse Higgins cheered. "You're not entirely there yet, but this really amazes me." Her experienced hands quickly removed the bandages. "Are you ready?" She looked at Abby before she would let her look at her wounds.

Abby swallowed and nodded.

She knew that what she was about to see wouldn't earn her a beauty pageant prize, but she was still shocked at the sight of the damage that had been done to her body. Slowly tracing the path of her woumds with her finger she could barely breathe. Silent tears started finding their way down her cheeks. Nurse Higgins felt so sorry for her. She wrapped her in a hug.

"That must be really hard on you Abby." She said.

"All this time that I have been in the hospital I tried to not think about what my body would look like. I guess I hoped that if I just didn't think about it, the wounds and scars wouldn't be there. And now I have to get used to a whole new body. What if I never get used to it? What if Gibbs never gets used to it?" Abby's hands were shaking and she had to put in an awful lot of effort to not burst into tears.

"Listen Abby, I know agent Gibbs and I rub eachother the wrong way. But I can tell that he loves you with all his heart and honestly? He's not the kind of man to ever hold anything against the one he loves most. He comes across as a man whom is loyal to a fault and yes, that might get him into trouble sometimes. But he will love you regardless of your scars, if not even more so."

"Thank you, nurse Higgins. You truly are an amazing woman." Abby stated as she felt slightly better about herself.

"Please call me Melody, and no problem. What goes around comes around. By the way: I see that we can put on smaller bandages on your wounds. I will consult Dr Clooney and ask if you can have your first shower tonight."

"That would be awesome! Do you think Gibbs could help me take my shower?" Abby's face lit up at the thought of having Gibbs help her with her shower.

"Hmm, I'm not so sure, he doesn't seem the type of man to take any instructions from anyone." Nurse Higgins made some funny faces and tried to make Abby laugh with a slightly cringeworthy impersonation of Gibbs. Until she saw Abby's eyes getting big and she felt an uneasy feeling wash over her.

"He's standing behind me, isn't he?" She asked without turning around.

Abby started laughing. "Gotcha!"

"You nasty little bugger!" Nurse Higgins yelled as she burst into laughter too. "I think I might have to cancel my conversation with Dr Clooney, if you're gonna scare the bejesus out of me all the time."

"Oops, sorry. I will not do anything to scare you ever again. Will you go talk to the doctor, please please please, pretty pleaaaaaase with a cherry on top?" Abby pleaded with a mischievous look on her face.

"Yeah, like I'm gonna believe you when you look at me like that. Of course I will talk to him, don't worry. But let's put on new bandages first. You wanna look bright and shiny for your sleepover tonight, right?"

"Sure thing, chica." Abby responded as she was looking forward to an evening with her family.


	27. Chapter 26

On his way home Gibbs took some time to think about the past couple of days, surprised about how strong his feelings for Abby were growing. He wasn't entirely used to these feelings anymore, eventhough he knew deep down inside that he had been in love with her for as long as he could remember. So, he should rephrase that, shouldn't he? His feelings for Abby weren't only growing, they had been there all along but he suppressed them. Like he did with so many other feelings.

But dammit! Everytime he laid eyes on her she became more gorgeous than she ever had been and she already was the most beautiful woman he'd seen in a VERY long time. His tummy started purring and he just couldn't help it but a widespread grin was plastered all over his face.

Lovingly caresssing the envelope Kate had given him in the hospital, that was lying next to him on the passengers seat of his car, he felt determined to make this christmas Abby's best christmas ever.

But, first things first. He made a stop at the local flower shop and picked out 3 beautiful roses. A black one, because it was her favorite color. A white rose to mark the new beginning of their journey and a red one because he loved her so much. He chose a card with care, one he knew that she would savor forever. The front of the card showed an image of a bouquet of roses and on the inside he wrote: "Babygirl, these three roses will mark the beginning of our journey together. A journey that I am eager to travel with you and that will take us anywhere we want. I love you so much. Forever yours, Gibbs.

PS: I heard that there is a pajama party tonight, do you want to be my date?"

With a satisfied smirk on his face he made sure that the florist would have the roses delivered within an hour. He paid and continued his way home.

The first thing he did when he got home was eyeing the decorations Tony had put back up like he asked him to, and after he decided that he was satisfied he started locating the trashbag with the rest of the christmas ornaments. He sat on the floor next to the bag when he finally spotted it, and looked through all the tiny decorations that he knew Abby picked out with so much care. Once again he could slap himself silly for the way he had behaved towards her. The painful memories came back full force and he had to swallow a couple of times to regain his composure, he decided that now wasn't the time to go all crybaby over the situation again. He, much like Abby, was wondering how long it would take him to stop going fluffy over every thought in his mind.

Carefully choosing small ornaments from the bag he started to decorate his coffee table. Under his hands unfolded a magic scene, and it took all of his concentration and a lot of time to make it as pretty as possible. Hold on a minute, didn't he have some leftover fake snow and crepe paper? He knew he had to have it somewhere...

Rummaging through every drawer in his house he came to the realization that he must have been mistaken, until he remembered that the stuff he was looking for might be in Kelly's room.

Kelly's room...

A room he had avoided for many years because the memories were too excruciating. He didn't know if he could handle going in there right now on his own just yet. He let out a sigh and turned around again. Today was not the day to try and conquer his fears, he would have plenty of time to do it together with Abby. Not only would he feel comfortable with her by his side, it was also the perfect way to show her what she meant to him. No one has ever been allowed in that room, but he'd gladly make an exception for her.

Consumed in his own thoughts he decided that he would go out and buy some fake snow, crepe paper and maybe some christmas lights. That would be the cherry on top of his surprise for Abby. As he hurried along he forgot to take his phone with him, which was lying around on the kitchen counter.

Back in the hospital Abby was in a state of panic. She couldn't find her phone, and it freaked her out. But she didn't know yet that her phone got crushed when Tony took Mawher down, and he fell on it. She really needed her phone because she wanted to ask Gibbs if he could bring some... nah, forget it. She just wanted to hear his voice and know that he was safe. The whole Mawher thing had gotten more under her skin than she thought and she was just worried about Gibbs. He was probably doing more than fine.

Just when she was about to push the alarmbutton to summon a nurse, her 3 coworkers came back from their respective duties. Kate and McGee were carrying bags full of snacks and drinks and Tony looked like he just mugged the moviesection of Walmart.

"Hey Abs-" Mcgee said, trying to start a conversation, but immediately stopped talking when he saw the look on her face.

"Anything wrong, Abby?" Kate asked while putting the bags that she'd been carrying down on the table.

"Where's my phone?" Abby asked her voice soft and threatening.

Tony shrugged his shoulders and looked uncomfortable when he started speaking. "I'm sorry Abby, Mawher fell on it when I took him down and it didn't survive the blow." He awkwardly gazed at the angry woman lying in the hospital bed.

"Well then, you'd better give me your phone before YOU won't survive my blow, right Tony?" And she folded her arms over her chest in anticipation of Tony giving her his phone.

"Uhm... well... uhm... I don't think Gibbs would like me to go without a p..." He started stuttering but his voice trailed off at the look on Abby's face.  
"Sure, Abs, here you go and have my phone, it's not like Gibbs will make YOUR life miserable over it, now will he?" Tony surrendered with a deep sigh.

"Atta boy!" Abby sneered as she started dialing Gibbs' number straight away. Nurse Higgins had chosen that particular moment to walk in with three roses beautifully wrapped, and yelled: "Flowers for miss Sciuto." And she smiled widely as she handed them to Abby. "I think they're from that gorgeous boyfriend of yours." She said as she turned around with a suggestive grin on her face, and left the room to go get a vase to put the flowers in.

Abby instantly laid the phone beside her on the bed, put her nose into the roses and inhaled their scent with closed eyes, savoring every moment of it. Suddenly her nose bumped into something and when she open her eyes, she saw the card that Gibbs had chosen for her to go with the flowers.

"Oh, hey... there's a card, hold on a minute." She said while picking the card out of the flowers and unfolding it to read it. She knew Gibbs' handwriting so well and the message in the card made her blush from ear to ear. Everything felt so familiar, yet still so new. She didn't know how to hide all these overwhelming emotions in front of her coworkers, so she reached for Tony's phone to call Gibbs again.

Tony tried to get his cellphone at the same moment, thinking Abby was done with it. Oh boy, was he wrong... Their hands clashed with eachother and Abby let out a frustrated groan. "Mine, Tony!" She growled as she slapped Tony's hand out of the way, and he looked at her in shock.

She didn't pay attention to his antics and started dialing Gibbs' number again.

Her stomach sank to her feet when all she heard was: "We're sorry; you have reached a number that has been disconnected or is no longer in service. If you feel you have reached this recording in error, please check the number and try your call again."


	28. Chapter 27

Blisfully unaware of the commotion in the hospital, Gibbs was whistling a cheerful tune while looking for the stuff he needed. He still hadn't noticed that he forgot his phone from the kitchen counter, but meh, who cared about cellphones anyway? They were so overrated.

Walking around the mall he found everything he needed, even within a decent amount of time. Which was really surprising to him, because usually he had to grump and moan his way through the mall in all his impatience.

Taking time to stop for something to drink before he headed home, he checked if he had everything he needed. Crepe paper? Check! Fake snow? Check! Christmas lights? Check! Airbed? Ch-! Wait, what? Airbed? That wasn't on his shopping list, but now that he thought about it... He might have an idea for it. And that idea involved a fireplace, loads of cozy blankets, soft pillows and some good food. He felt all warm and fuzzy just by thinking about it, and he went ahead and bought an airbed.

Just as he was paying for his purchase, he noticed a familiar silhouette in the row next to him.

"Ducky! What are you doing here?" he asked as he slid his creditcard back in his wallet, put the airbed in a plastic bag and waited patiently for Ducky.

"Oh, hi Jethro, mr Palmer and I were just here to buy a little gift for Abigail. Timmy called Jimmy," and Ducky had to chuckle for a bit there at his own joke, "and invited us over for a pajama party in the hospital? What is that about?"

"She's recovering extremely fast and the hospital staff is convinced that it also has to do with us being around. Although I have to admit that I'm not sure what DiNozzo's contribution to that would be..." He had to laugh when he saw Ducky's face, it was priceless.

"Just kidding, Duck." He looked at his medical examiner with a fond look in his eyes. Their bond grew very tight over the years they've been working together and Ducky was like a father figure to him.

"Where's Palmer holding up?" He asked Ducky.

"He should be here in a minute, he was right behind me just moments ago... Oh look, there he is!" Ducky pointed at someone just arriving in the checkout line.

"Good, we won't have to put a BOLO out for him. Look, Ducky, I still have a lot of stuff to do before tonight. Would you mind if I ran off and meet you back later in the hospital?"

"Not at all, Jethro! Will meet you back at Abby's around, let's say, 6ish?"

"Sounds good to me, see you then." And he hurried off to his car.

Meanwhile, back in the hospital, Abby threw a hissy fit.

"HE'S NOT PICKING UP HIS PHONE!" She practically shouted through the entire hospital.

"Relax, Abs, you're waking up all the babies not only in this hospital, but probably in the hospitals of the entire United States of America as well..."

"Shut up, Tony!" Abby snapped. "What is wrong with you?! You are just standing here making lame jokes, and Gibbs could be lying dead somewhere for all we know." She choked up, unable to catch her breath there for a moment.

McGee stepped in and sat himself down on the edge of her bed. It hurt him to see Abby in so much agony, but he knew it was normal after what she had been through.

"Abby, look at me and take a deep breath." Tim held her hands and took a deep breath along with her. "That's a good girl, now slowly breathe out..." His voice faded as he slowly breathed out along with her, still holding her hands.

Nurse Higgins shuffled around his back with a vase to put the roses in.

"Everything okay here?" She asked.

"She'll be fine in a minute." McGee responded as he softly squeezed Abby's hands as to comfort her. "Maybe you could give her something to calm down a little bit?" He looked up at nurse Higgins with a raised eyebrow, waiting for confirmation on her part.

"Sure, I'll be back in a minute." She said as she hurried off to get some medication.

Abby was still off her rocker and McGee said: "Listen Abs, Tony and Kate will go to Gibbs house right now and check what is going on, while I keep you company. Is that okay with you?"

Abby nodded in silence.

"Wait, McDirector, since when are you handing out orders. You know I should give you a headsleap for that, don't you? I'm still the senior field ag-"

"You can kiss my royal derrière with your senior field agent bull, Tony. If you really were one, you would have been on your way a long time ago." McGee finally had enough of Tony's antics, and he turned back to Abby as a sign that the discussion was over. He knew Kate would step in and drag Tony along with her. And so she did, she grabbed him by the sleeve of his jacket and literally dragged him out of Abby's room.

Nurse Higgins came back with the medication for Abby and McGee stood up to give her room to give it to her.

"There, all done Abby. Please let me know if you need anything else?"

Abby nodded again and watched her turn around and walk away.

She turned to McGee and thanked him.

"No problem, Abs. You know that. I'm just glad that I have some alone time with you. I haven't seen much of you since it all happened. How are you doing?"

"Okayish." Came her curt answer. She was tired of all the fuzz around Gibbs. She just needed him to be here with her and now he had disappeared from the face of the earth.

Tony and Kate came to Gibbs' house and of course they were bickering.

"I told you last time that you should have let me drive that damn car!" Kate exploded when she got out of the vehicle. "Only you can make a person physically sick during a car ride. Tell me Tony, did you really have to take that speedbump with 120 miles per hour?!" She angrily slammed the car door shut.

"Oh, boohoo, I just do not know what you're moaning and groaning about. You're still alive aren't you? You're such a sissy."

As Kate was opening her mouth to tell Tony off, he laid his indexfinger on his lips and shushed

her. After carefully looking around he asked her: "Does something seem off to you?"

"I don't know Tony. Does it, or is your imagination going wild again?" She retorted.

Tony laid his hand on his weapon and tiptoed to Gibbs' front door, trying to open it.

"It's open!" He yelled as soft as he could in Kate's direction.

"It's always open, you knucklehead." Kate started to enjoy this situation as she leaned against the car. She knew Gibbs would be just fine and thought Tony was just overreacting. Giggling she started following him inside.

Just to humor him she tried calling Gibbs again, but got the same message Abby got:

"We're sorry; you have reached a number that has been disconnected or is no longer in service. If you feel you have reached this recording in error, please check the number and try your call again."

"He's still not answering his phone." She said walking up behind Tony in the kitchen, she found him there standing with a phone in his hand.

"Yeah, this is why we couldn't reach him. The battery is dead. I wonder why he didn't take it with him. I know he hates modern technology, but he usually always carries it with him. Even if it was only so that we could reach him.

"Tony!" Kate's voice sounded urgent as she was looking out of the kitchen window.

"What?" He said without looking up from Gibbs' phone.

"His car is gone..." She turned around to look at Tony with panic in her eyes.


	29. Chapter 28

"Oh, CRAP!" Gibbs thought when he came back to his car and saw it standing there with a flat tyre. And if his day couldn't get any worse, he spotted another flat tyre on the other side of the damn thing. And he had so much to do before he had to go to the hospital again.

Reaching into his pocket for his phone he noticed it wasn't there and he realized he must have forgotten to take it with him.

Letting out a sigh of frustration he returned to the mall and decided to ask if he could use a phone somewhere.

As he walked back, he ran into Ducky again.

"Jethro! I thought you'd be well on your way back home by now, what's going on?" He greeted his friend.

"Ah, Duck, my car has two flat tyres. I have a spare one in my trunk, but I can't compete against TWO flat tyres, just my luck. Can I borrow your phone for a second?" He asked as he reached out to Ducky who was taking his phone out of his pocket and handed it to Gibbs.

"Thanks, Duck." Gibbs smiled as he pulled up Ducky's contacts and started dialing Tony's number. It didn't take very long before he answered the call.

"Ducky! I can't talk right now, Kate and I are on a supersecret, superdangerous rescue mission as Gibbs is nowhere to be found." Tony whispered in his phone, totally unaware of the fact that he wasn't talking to Ducky but to his boss. Gibbs decided to play along and whispered: "That is a rather horrid thing to say, Anthony. Why would you think Gibbs is nowhere to be found?"

Gibbs winked at Ducky, and could barely contain a grin when he heard Tony whisper:

"He didn't take his phone with him and his car is missing too!" He was still oblivious to the fact that he was talking to Gibbs, because Gibbs was smart enough to whisper as well so Tony wouldn't hear the difference. Throwing in an occasional Ducky anolamy certainly didn't hurt either, who knew he would be so awesome with his scottish accent? Guess you learn something new about yourself everyday.

"Are you really sure Jethro is missing, Anthony? How about Caitlin, can you give her on the phone for a second?"

Not reading anything into the strange request he just got, he handed his phone over to Kate and said: "Here, Ducky wants to talk to you."

Kate raised an eyebrow, but didn't argue. Instead she said: "Hey, What's up, Duck?" And the pun was seriously intended.

"Utter one word and you'll be doing deskwork for the rest of your entire NCIS career." Gibbs threatened, because he didn't want Tony to figure out who Kate was talking to.

Kate, on the other hand, nearly suffered a heart attack when she heard Gibbs' cranky voice and she let out a very audible gasp of air, but she was smart enough to play the game along.

"Roger that, Ducky." She replied as she turned her back to Tony so he couldn't see her face.

"Okay, I need you and Dinozzo to come pick me up at the mall, my car has two flat tyres and I actually REALLY don't have time for any kind of that crap now."

"we're on our way, be there in 15 minutes."

"..."

"Okay, Ducky. Yeah Ducky, see you in 15" Kate hung up the phone and was able to snatch the car keys out of Tony's hand as he wasn't paying attention.

"Come on, we gotta hurry. There's places we need to be right now." She motioned Tony to hurry up and get into the car.

Meanwhile she was smart enough to pull out her own phone and send McGee a text message to let him know that Gibbs was doing just fine, but that he stranded at the mall with two flat tyres. She was certain that the news would calm down Abby and that was the most important thing.

"Where are we going?" Tony moaned. He didn't like being left out of the loop and was acting like a spoiled little brat. He sank down in the passengers seat next to kate, moping about the fact that he knew nothing and she apparently knew more than he did.

"Just going for a little ride Tony, nothing fancy."

"But what about Gibbs?"

"Meh, I'm sure he'll be fine. Since when did we start to worry about his door being open or his car being gone?"

Looking at Kate in disbelief, Tony shifted in his seat.

"We don't but-"

"He's fine Tony, just let it go." Kate sighed with a hint of annoyance in her voice.

And for once Tony did, because he finally started realizing that things in Kate's story weren't adding up. And Kate had an inner giggle about how Gibbs had just taken the mickey out of Tony. She had to keep a straight face though.

Back in the hospital McGee was taking a potty break when Kate's text message arrived. Relieved that nothing was going on he hurried back to Abby's room. She had fallen asleep but was very restless. He decided to wake her up and tell her the good news, because he was sure that would make her feel better in an instant.

"Abby," he whispered as he softly scooped her hand in his. This was all still a bit weird to him. He never totally gotten over the fact that they dated for almost a year when he just started working at NCIS, and that she felt they didn't have the chemistry needed to make their relationship work. Of course he now knew why that was, but he still missed her very much. It was difficult for him to see her so happy with Gibbs, but at the end of the day he knew his boss would take better care of Abby than he would ever be able to do. So he just tried to be happy for them.

"Abs, wake up." He started nudging her and she grumpily moaned when she had to open her eyes.

"What, McSleepdisturber?"

"Again with the McNicknames, Abby? Seriously? You guys really need to cut that crap."

"We will, Timmy. We will. As soon as you stop waking me up for no reason."

"Who said I woke you up for no reason?"

"Well, I was having the sweetest dream and then you started nudging me. So what was the point of waking me up again?"

"Sorry to interrupt your lovely dreams, sweetpea. I just wanted to let you know that Gibbs is doing just fine, he just stranded at the mall with 2 flat tyres and forgot to take his phone with him." Sarcasm evident in his voice.

Abby realized she might have been a bit too harsh on Tim. She knew he still loved her and it must be really hard on him to see her together with their boss now.

"I'm sorry, Timmy. I'm sure this must be difficult for you. It's not something I can help and I'm so sorry if my actions make you feel crappy."

"Don't worry about it, Abby. I realize now that I stood no chance from the beginning. Yeah, it hurts like hell. But seeing you and Gibbs so happy makes it all worth it. Besides, I'm just really, really, REALLY happy that you're still alive. I don't know what I would've done if..."

"Shhhh, don't say it, Tim." She said as she softly squeezed his hand. "I'm still here and we're all still here so let's just enjoy our happy moments together. As a family."


	30. Chapter 29

"You have GOT to be kidding me!" Tony exclaimed while he crossed his arms and his expression became vacant.

"Don't worry, DiNozzo. We were." Gibbs retorted as he started walking towards the car. "Keys." He said to Kate as he absentmindedly stretched out his hand. When she didn't respond he had to turn around to face her and he saw that she was nearly choking in laughter. His own mouth twitching into a grin, he couldn't help but laugh along with her.

"Awwww, come ON, guys. This is not funny anymore." Tony whined.

"So, let me get this straight, Tony." Kate couldn't stop giggling. "As long as you are the one teasing us, it's all okay, but if we tease you back you get all butthurt?"

"That sums it up pretty nicely, yes." He simply said.

"Gibbs! When are you going to tell him he really needs to cut that crap?"

"Not today, Katie. You two ought to be grown ups, so you can figure it out for yourself. I'm not your babysitter, nor your divorce lawyer. Come on, get in the car, I haven't got all day you know?!"

Ducky was observing his friends with tenderness in his eyes. He loved them all so much and he was so happy that everything turned out for the better. That everyone was still alive. And bickering again, after those dreadful hours, when they didn't know if Abby would pull through.

"Jethro!" He tried to get Gibbs' attention before he would get into his own car.

"Yeah, Duck?"

Ducky hesitated for a second. He knew Gibbs was not very keen on mushy declarations, so he decided to keep it short.

"See you in a few hours, and Jethro? Be careful!"

"Will do, Ducky." And they all got in the car and drove off.

Gibbs drove back to his place and gave the keys back to Kate.

"You make sure that my car gets towed, bring DiNozzo to the hospital and then come and pick me up here, okay?"

"Will do, Gibbs. You need anything else?"

"Just peace and quiet."

And he entered his house.

As he was unpacking all of the stuff he bought, he was already looking forward to seeing the look on Abby's face when she would see all of his efforts.

He decorated the scene on the coffee table with a final touch of crepe paper and some fake snow. Stepping back to eye his work, he nodded his head and let out a sigh of content. Abby would love this.

The next thing on his to do list was to decorate the fireplace with crepe paper, holly and the christmas lights. This unfolded just as magic as the christmas scene on his coffee table and as finishing touch he hung up 2 big christmas stockings. A black one with white skulls on it and red fur on top for Abby and a plain red and white one for himself. He would put a gift in her stocking every day until she got home.

Oh, that reminded him of something! The envelope Kate gave him, now where did he leave that?

He looked around his living room and couldn't find it anymore. Awww hell naw! That was not the plan. He ran his hands through his hair and at that moment he saw a tiny white corner sticking out from under a plastic grocery bag. He let out a gasp of relief. This was the most important thing of this whole surprise and he hadn't even taken a look at it yet.

So he sat himself down on one of his kitchen chairs, put on his reading glasses and carefully opened up the envelope.

"Oh my GOODNESS!" he thought as he gently pulled out the contents of the envelope. He was speechless for a couple of minutes and had, yet again, to bite back his tears.

"Gibbs? Where are you?"

Gibbs was so distracted that he hadn't heard Kate coming in and he had to clear his throat before he was able to speak.

"In here, Katie." He answered as he stood up from his chair to wrap his arms around her and give her a big bear hug.

"Wow! When did you all of a sudden become so touchy feely?"

"The envelope, Kate."

"Oooooohhhh, I take it you like it then?" Looking into his red eyes, she knew that she did a good job. She cupped his face in her hands and kissed him on his forehead.

"Merry christmas, Gibbs. You and Abby deserve it so much." She smiled at him as he kissed her temple. "Thank you so much, Katie, I owe you one."

"Nah, we're good. Are you done here?"

"Well, actually, now that you mention it-" Gibbs started, but was interrupted by Kate.

"Good grief, now it's coming." She teased.

"You done yet?"

"I think so." She could barely contain her giggles.

Gibbs, unfased by Kate's teasing, walked into his living room. "I just bought an airbed to put in front of the fireplace, but I ran out of decorative skills, I guess. I have no clue where to put it, or how to put-"

And yet again, Kate interrupted him. "Say no more, Gibbs. My nana lives 10 minutes from here. You blow up that thing and I'll be back in no time with blankets and pillows."

Gibbs raised his eyebrows but didn't say anything as Kate was already on her way to the car. He had always known that it had been a good move to snatch her away from the secret service, but it was in situations like these that she proved to be even more valuable.

He was halfway through blowing up the airbed, when Kate returned.

"God, Gibbs! You do realize they have special pumps to inflate an airbed, right?".

"Relax, Kate, I know. I should have one somewhere but I can't find it, so I'll just have to blow it, I guess."

"well, let's not hope that you take your own statement too literally." She quipped and ran to the kitchen before he would realize what she'd just said.

"By the way, Gibbs. Abby needs a new phone. She tends to get very hostile when she doesn't have one." Kate came back into the living room with a bag she just picked up at nana's house.

"She can have mine. Are you sure your nana is okay with you robbing her of her stuff?" He stuck his nose into the bag to see what was in it.

"I'm sure Abby wants her own phone, and not some third hand hand-me-d..." Kate's voice trailed off as she saw the look on Gibbs' face.

"Buuuut I guess you already have a plan?"

"Yeah Kate, I do have a plan. She can have my phone until she gets to come home and open up her christmas presents, and I'll use one from the stash you and DiNozzo hide in your desk drawers."

Oops, BUSTED!

"You know about that?"

"Technically I don't, so we never had this conversation. Okay, Katie?" He sent his brightest smile her way.

"You done yet?" She asked him, pointing at the airbed.

"Yep, all done."

"Do you think we could carefully move the coffeetable a bit more that way?"

"Are you kidding me? That took me hours to complete!"

"Do you want to use that ridiculously big airbed in front of the fireplace?"

"Yeah, but-"

"Then we're moving the coffee table."

"Since when did you get so feisty?"

"I've always been feisty. That's the reason you snatched me away from the secret service, remember?"

"Next time, give me a wake up call before I make a mistake like that again?"

Kate stuck her tongue out. "you're mean." She simply stated as he started laughing.

For the next ten minutes or so, they worked silently alongside eachother as they put the bed in front of the fireplace. Kate had almost outdone herself on the suprise in the envelope. Or rather, her nana did. When they were finished, there was an awesome crocheted green and red afghan with little white snowmen on top of the airbed, and some fluffy pillows with Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer on them.

"Are you sure this isn't too fluffy for your liking?" Kate sniggered.

"If Abby loves it, I love it."

"Spoken like a true boyfriend."

"Come, let's go to the hospital. I've been away from my girlfriend for far too long now."

With one last satisfied look he closed the door behind him.


	31. Chapter 30

"I win, I win, I win!" Abby was almost jumping up and down in her bed because she managed to beat Tony, McGee, Ducky and Palmer in a game of hangman.

"Just my luck. First I get bullied, now I get my butt beaten in a game of hangman." Tony said with a semi offended look on his face.

"You want me to work my Abbycadabra magic on you, Tony?"

"What are you planning to do to me? I heard that you are one of the few people in the world who can murder someone and leave no evidence. You scare me."

Abby started laughing at the look on Tony's face.

"Don't worry you big, fluffy, grumpy, old teddybear. I only want to give you a hug."

"Oh, okay." He said relieved as he bent over to hug her. When he looked at the entrance he saw Gibbs standing there, motioning Tony to come over. He laid his finger over his lips to let Tony know it should be done in silence.

"Abs, I really have to go and empty my urinary tract." He jumped from one foot to the other to make Abby think that he really needed to use the bathroom.

"You're such a partypooper, Tony." Abby sighed.

"More like partywhazzer in this case. Really gotta run, Abs! Bye!" And he ran off.

"What's up, boss?" Tony wanted to know when he positioned himself next to Gibbs, who was standing just around the corner from Abby's room.

"You're enjoying yourself, DiNozzo?"

Tony couldn't quite gauge if his boss was being sarcastic, so he said nothing. But he realized that Gibbs must have seen him hug Abby.

"ooooohhh, do I detect a whiff of jealousy?" Tony just couldn't help himself, could he?

"What?! Jealousy? I don't know what you're thinking, bubblebutt, but I just wanted to know if you know a way to get me in there without Abby noticing."

"The longer I work with you, the more demanding you get."

 **SMACK!**

"Don't make me smack the back of your head again, Tony. I still have that raincheck, remember?"

"Geez! Good thing I rented "A Muppet Christmas Carol". Someone in here should meet the ghosts of christmas past, christmas present and christmas future..."

Now, that headslap didn't have the effect Gibbs hoped for, so he sent Tony his best death glare.

"Okay. Fine! I'll think of something."

"Atta boy!" Gibbs petted the back of Tony's head as Tony started to walk back to his chair next to Abby's bed.

"That took you long, Tony. Did you go all the way to Hawaii to whaz?" Poor Tony almost raised a white flag. Man, they were after him today!

"Actually Abs, I came up with another game to play. One I know for sure I am going to win."

Abby started sniggering. "Yeah, just like you won the last 15 rounds of hangman, right? Uh huuuh."

He looked at Ducky, Palmer and McGee with a smug grin on his face and said: "What if we'd play a nice little game of "I spy with my little eye"?

Gibbs was baffled. How did that kid come up with these kinds of things so fast? Still, it took him way too long. Being so close to Abby and not being able to touch her was driving him insane. "Come on, Bubblebutt, I know you can do it." He mumbled to himself.

"Hows everything going over here?" Kate handed him a cup of coffee that she got from the vending machines in the hospital lobby.

"Tony is going to try and distract Abby, I just want to suprise her that I'm back."

"Do you really trust him with that? Sounds like one more thing he's going to screw up, like he usually does."

"Katie, why are you moaning and complaining every single time you say something about him? You fancy him? Tony and Kate, sitting in a tree k-i-s-"

"EWWW, Gibbs! NO!" Kate almost yelled, but he knew by the color of her face that he'd struck a nerve and he couldn't suppress a suggestive, devilish grin.

"What are you thinking? You are so gross!" kate continued her hissy fit.

"I'm not thinking anything, just stating facts after careful deliberation of the facts I see happening in front of me." He simply stated.

"Oh shut up!"

Gibbs pulled his attention away from Kate to see how Tony was doing. From what he could see Tony was on his high horse. Again.

"I get to start, because I lost almost all of the hangman games."

"No, that's not true Anthony, we decided long ago that the winner gets to choose who starts the next game." Ducky argued.

"Well, I'm saying I'm starting. Who came up with such a stupid rule anyway?"

"You did, Tony." Came the dry answer from McGee.

"Hm. Well, today we do it a little bit different and I say I will start. So. Abby. I spy with my little eye..." And he was purposely looking in every direction except the direction of the door. "and I see something silver haired."

Abby had been snoozing with her eyes closed while she was listening to the banter between the boys, so she didn't immediately register what Tony was saying. She did see that he was looking out the window so that was where she was looking for something silver haired. Wait. What? Something silver haired?

"What? Where? Is Gibbs here?"

"Who said anything about Gibbs?"

"You said something silver haired!"

"Well, maybe there are more silver haired things in this world than Gibbs alone. Keep looking, Abs."

He motioned for Gibbs to come over quickly, because he wasn't sure how long Abby would be looking out of the window.

"Good job Abs, you're doing fine."

A few tense seconds passed as they didn't know if the switcheroo would work.

"I don't see anything, Tony." Abby was about to turn around, sweat started forming on Tony's forehead and Gibbs ducked quickly behind one of the other beds in case she'd notice him.

Luckily Palmer realized something was about to happen, jumped in and wrapped his arm around her.

"Let's take a look together, Abs, two people always see more than one." And he side eyed her with an amused look on his face.

In the meantime Gibbs and Tony were able to switch places.

"Thanks Bubblebutt." Gibbs whispered and grinned as he sat down, straightened his facial muscles into his pokerface and silently shooed Tony away. All this happened within a matter of seconds, minute tops.

"I STILL don't see anything, Jimmy." Abby pouted with a deep sigh. She missed Gibbs badly and couldn't appreciate the joke Tony was trying to pull on her.

"You're right, Abby. Tony must have been mistaken, I'm so very sorry." Palmer really felt very sorry for her as he stood up from her bed and sat in his own chair again.

Abby had closed her eyes to hide her disappointment from the others. Gibbs felt his gut cramp up at the sad look on her face.

"Maybe I can help you find something silver haired, Abs." He said softly.

She would recognize that voice literally everywhere.

"GIBBS!" She exclaimed and she didn't know if she should be happy that he was finally back, or angry because he and Tony had pulled this stunt on her. So she decided to meet up halfway between the two.

"You're so mean." She snorted as she stuck her tongue out.

"That's funny that you should mention that. Kate said something along the same lines about a chapter ago. And I try -SO- hard to be nice, Don't I, Ducky?"

"Yes, you do Jethro." Ducky couldn't help but grin.

"I'm not talking to you anymore." Abby grumbled and stuck her nose in the air.

"Are you people having fun?" Dr Clooney entered the room with a big smile on his face.

"Yes sir." came the reply in unison.

"That is good news. I also have good news for the two lovebirds over here. Can you all leave the room for a minute as I have important things to discuss with Mr and Mrs Gibbs?" He winked at Abby, who still pretended to be a little grumpy. Though she couldn't deny that the Mrs Gibbs thing made her feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

"What's going on?" Gibbs asked curiously after everyone else had left the room.

"So, you're a straight to the point kinda guy, huh? I like that."

Gibbs rolled his eyes out loud at the doctor and Abby had to snigger.

"I just came down here to let you guys know that Abby's wounds are healing so fast. We are so surprised about it and have never seen anything like it. You are a fighter and a survivor, Abby."

Abby started blushing when Gibbs turned around to her and looked at her with so much pride and love in his eyes.

"In fact: it is going so well that nurse Higgins came to talk to me today and said that you could have smaller bandages and even take a shower! I'm sure the both of you are looking very much forward to that." Dr Clooney gazed around a tad arrogantly, satisfied with the knowledge that he had delivered the best news in the world today.

Gibbs wasn't so sure about that yet. He started sweating and had to swallow a few times before he could gather the courage to ask: "Shower?"

"Yes! Together! Isn't that lovely?" Dr Clooney couldn't understand the silence that had fallen over Gibbs and Abby, and he hoped that by being overly happy about it that he could make them enthusiastic as well.

"Together?" Gibbs managed to peep. Wow! That was quite a bombshell that he didn't expect to be dropped. They hadn't even french kissed yet, and now they were supposed to take a shower together? It was a bit weird, especially considering the fact that they had been working together for so long and were so comfortable with eachother, but this made him nervous. He wanted to take things slow with her and not rush anything and he suspected by the terrified look on her face that she hadn't expected this as well. Although she had a different reason, called scars.

"Yeah. Well. You two kids have fun with it!" Dr Clooney raced out of the room, before one of them could open their mouth and start asking him questions.


	32. Chapter 31

Complete and utter silence fell over the hospital room.

Gibbs ran his fingers through his hair and started pacing up and down the room.

"I.. uh.. did.. did you... did he really say something about us taking a shower together?"

He knew that there had been sexual tension between them, but that was with clothes on. In the shower they would be naked. Of course they would be, because who in their right mind would take a shower with their clothes on?

Abby started giggling.

"Are you getting nervous, Agent Gibbs?" She teased. She loved this side of him that she hadn't seen yet. He was just like a young boy going on his first date. All stuttering and sheepish and it melted her heart. She grabbed his hand just as he was about to turn around and continue pacing.

He sighed as she pulled him down next to her.

"Maybe."

"Oh, come on Gibbs, you're stuttering like a 14 year old asking a girl out for the first time." She laughed.

"Aren't you getting nervous?" He retorted and Abby turned serious.

"Yeah. I just saw my wounds today when nurse Higgins changed my bandages. She said that they are healing so well, so I had to see for myself. I just didn't realize the impact that would have on me. Gibbs, I am a forensic scientist, so I thought I'd seen it all. But nothing could ever prepare me for the shock that I got when I saw my body, not even years of experience in my line of work." She fell silent for a moment as the memory of that morning came back so vividly.

"Oh, Abs..."

"Nervous doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of what I'm feeling right now. I am terrified. Terrified of showing you my wounds, terrified that they'll scare you away, terrified that I will never be able to recognize my own body again. I don't care how many people say that they are healing so well, because in the end there will always be the scars and I will have to live with them." She couldn't look him in the eyes as she started to choke up and felt the tears stinging in the corners of her eyes.

"Abs. Abby, look at me." He urged as he turned her head towards him so he could look her in the eyes. He slowly started to take off his shirt. He heard a soft gasp and he saw her eyes getting big.

"You're not the only one with physical scars, baby." He stated with a soft voice as he showed her the scars on his chest and back. Wounds he had suffered during combat and that had always remained scars were all over his torso.

Putting his shirt back on, he said: "I'm nervous, Abs, not because of how you look with or without those scars. You are the most gorgeous woman ever to me. You are so beautiful that everytime I look at you I forget how to breathe. You are so smart, that you can make me feel dumb just by being around you. You are so sweet that cavities appear like clockwork in my dentures. I don't care about the scars Abs, because they will make you even more beautiful to me." He took a deep breath as she hung unto every word he was saying.

"I'm nervous because I want to do everything right. I do not want to rush you and I do not want to take advantage of you, but most of all I want to show you that I'm in this for the long haul. We know eachother so well, baby, yet this is all so brand new and I just do not want to screw this up. That is why I'm stuttering like a 14 year old asking a girl out for the first time."

Unable to say anything, she pulled him in for a hug and tears started crawling down her face when she felt his heartbeat against her cheek. He cradled her back and forth and held her as tight as he possibly could.

"So, what do you say, Abs? Do you want to take that shower with me?" He whispered.

He let out a sigh of relief when she nodded against his chest.

"Do you think we have time for that before everyone gets back?" She asked him. He looked at his watch and said there would be plenty of time. They wouldn't miss them for that couple of minutes. There were enough snacks and movies to last for an entire week.

"Be right back, Abs." He bent over to kiss her before he went to the nurses station. On his way there he bumped into nurse Higgins.

"Sorry." he mumbled and he wanted to walk by her.

"Agent Gibbs, do you have a minute for me?" She asked after hesitating for a few seconds, because she didn't want him to go all grumpy on her again.

He turned back to her with raised eyebrows, curiously eyeing her from a distance.

"Yeah, sure."

She decided to get straight to the point.

"Why do you hate me?"

"I don't hate you."

"You have a strange way of showing someone you don't hate them."

"Don't take it personal, the second b in my name stands for bastard. It's just what I do for a living."

"So... we're good? Because I really like Abby so I should like you too, right? Is there any way of getting on your good side?"

"Nah, last time I checked there wasn't." He started to enjoy the bickering.

"okay, fine. Whatever floats your boat. Have a nice evening, agent Gibbs." She simply turned around and walked into the nurses station.

"Jethro."

She turned back in surprise.

"Jethro?"

"Yeah, that's my first name. Or at least one of them. It's Leroy Jethro, but most everyone calls me Gibbs or Jethro." He explained while offering her his hand.

"Melody. Nice to meet you, Jethro."

Gibbs had no more time for innocent chitchat, so he stated matter of factly: "Dr Clooney told us that Abby's wounds are healing nicely and that she can have a shower?"

"Yeah, it's amazing how she holds up, isn't it?"

"Yeah, She's a fighter. What would we need for her to be able to take that shower?"

"Are you willing to take instructions from me?"

"Only if I have to."

"Are you gonna be like that all night, Gibbs?" She retorted and a wide grin spread across his face.

"Ah, now, that's more like it. There's a chair in the shower, and depending on how she holds up when she has to get out of bed she might need a wheelchair too. That is, if you helping her from her bed to the shower is too painful for her."

"Okay, so far, so good"

"Removing bandages will be no problem as long as you do it carefully. Lukewarm water will be good for the wounds, but not for too long. No use of soap, only for you to disinfect your hands and arms, or shampoo and when you are finished, there's a button in the shower that you can push and someone will come over to help dry her off and give her new bandages."

"I think I can manage that." He breathed out slowly, to calm his nerves.

"Don't worry, you'll do just fine. Oh, by the way: do you want to use the shower down the hall instead of the one in the room? Because I can see a happy bunch returning and you might want to have a bit more privacy."

When he turned around he saw Tony, Kate, Tim, Jim and Ducky going back to Abby's room.

"That might actually not be such a bad idea."

"Okay, let's do it then." nurse Higgins said as she walked towards the nearest wheelchair and handed it over to Gibbs.

"What are you doing, boss?" McGee asked when he saw Gibbs returning with the wheelchair.

"This gorgeous, young lady is going to take a shower, and I'm going to help her." He answered while he tenderly gazed at Abby. "I'm sure you guys will be fine for a while here?"

"We're not so sur-" tony got interrupted by kate planting her elbow in his stomach.

"Shut up!" She hissed through clenced teeth.

Gibbs couldn't resist the urge of whispering in her ear: "k-i-s-s-i-n-g".

"Bastard!" Kate mouthed to him, as he was helping Abby getting from her bed in the wheelchair.

Being out of bed for the first time since it happened was a bit weird for Abby. Her legs felt a little wobbly and the wounds were hurting more than she had anticipated. She moaned as Gibbs sat her down in the wheelchair.

"You okay?"

"yeah, I'm fine." She said with her eyes closed. The others were all looking at her, to see if she needed help, but it only made her nervous. "Let's go, please."

Upon arrival in the shower, Gibbs sat himself down in the chair facing Abby. He took her hands in his and let his eyes flicker over her body. He took the time to soak up every single detail before he started speaking.

"Are you sure you want this, baby?" He asked scooting in a bit closer, softly kissing her hand that laid in his.

Abby nodded, a tingling sensation rose from the pit of her stomach.

"Are you comfortable enough for me to undress you?" He whispered, just to be sure as he let his fingertips slowly trail down a path from her cheek, down her neck to the buttons of her hospital gown.

She nodded again, unable to speak because she was so nervous. His gentle touch sent shivers down her spine and she looked up at him, her eyes wide open and he realized she trembled because of those nerves.

"Wait." He whispered as he slowly stood up from his chair and started taking off his shirt again. The soft light in the shower gave his hard, chiseled body a devine glow and Abby couldn't take her eyes off him. His strong, yet flexible muscles were clearly visible under his bronzed skin, and her hands were itching to explore every single inch of his torso.

"Gibbs..."

"Sshhh, babygirl. Just try to relax and enjoy the moment." His hands slid down to his belt to untie it and he calmly let his pants drop to the floor. Abby let out an audible gasp, and she felt her blood rise to her face.

He helped her up on her feet from the wheelchair and held her in his strong arms. He wanted her to get used to the contours of his body and the nakedness of his skin, before he would undress her. He wanted her to feel completely comfortable with his presence and warmth and he didn't care how long it would take.

Abby sighed deeply as she laid her hands on his chest, before she started exploring his body. Her fingers caressed his muscles before they slid down towards his stomach. Her soft brush made him weak in the knees and he moaned softly. "Hmmmm, Abby." His voice faltered as he started to unbutton her gown.

"You ready?"

She nodded. He had to sit her down in the shower chair to be able to help her out of her gown and remove the bandages. He did it fast but careful. If the wounds shocked him he was pretty good at hiding it. When he was done he took a moment yet again to eye her from top to toe. Eventually their eyes met again and he locked his gaze with hers.

"You are dazzling, baby."

"Kiss me, Gibbs."

"In a second."

He quickly turned on the shower and waited for it to reach the right temperature before he delicately lifted her out of the chair and into his arms. He made sure that he caught those first waterdrops so that Abby wouldn't be overwhelmed with so much water.

"Is the water not too hot?" He asked her.

"I don't know about the water, but you look pretty steamy." She giggled.

He pressed his lips against hers. God! Her lips were so soft, and warm and he felt a jolt rushing through his body. He opened his mouth and let his tongue trace her lower lip, before he started nipping it.

"Oooh Gibbs. Mmmm, that feels so good."

"I love you, Abby."

She looked up at him. "I love you too, Gibbs."


End file.
